Disinfection Perfection

So...Swine Flu. Yucky. I happen to work at one of the hospitals that has confirmed a few cases. The hubby being in the Coast Guard, and (if you do your reasearch) in our area one of our fabulous coasties has gotten it as well. Have yet to find out who, if I know him, and better yet, if I've come into contact with him recently.

So, at work, I work in the ER (sort of), flu city. I was already avoiding it like the plague because JCAHO was visiting, but now I'm really avoiding it. I don't want to get sick. Everyone at work is going crazy disinfecting everything. No one is shaking hands, no one at church is holding hands during the Lord's Prayer, it's quarantine time here. School closings, parade cancellations, well, half way, and overall mass hysteria. I decided on my way home from work to stop and pick up some hand sanitizer for home since my family is coming in from out of town and I don't want them to get me sick or this place to get them sick. Would you believe that I stopped at 2 stores and both were completely out of it. Not one bottle left. Not even a bottle of antibacterial soap. I find that hilarious. First, antibacterial kills, well, bacteria. The flu is a virus, people! You need to check stuff to make sure it kills the flu. I was able to find some Clorox spray that says right on the bottle that it kills Flu A & B.

My house is sufficiently sanitized for my protection. Now, I need to mandate everyone that comes in use one of the million hand sanitizers I have or soap. Or, if you're me....both! I also have this kind of funny headache going on now. Clorox in closed spaces may not have been a good idea.

I did however find out how it got started...

Kinda funny, right. But so wrong on so many levels.

Wow - I'm beat.

So, yesterday officially ended our big Build Fest at work. It's software build - very boring for people who aren't me. I'm a nurse and doing software build - kind of funny. Anywho~it's over! And, I made it. That may not seem like much, but I'm proud. The team for our hospital was put together last summer. Everyone was trained and certified (not certifiable, like I believe I am) before I even came to the team. I started my training the last week of October and was completely certified by December 11. By the time I got back, that was 1 month. I'm proud to say that means I got certified faster than anyone on our team (maybe with the highest scores too). We expected to not be on track with everyone else because of how much later I got started, but we met the deadline of the entire team. Sorry, I have to toot my own horn here because I very rarely am proud of myself.

However, I am now exhausted. I haven't slept very well for about a week. My eating has been shot to heck due to massive cravings of donuts and the like. I've been praying to get back on track, but sometimes my stomach speaks to me a tad louder than God. Sorry, God, I swear I'm trying. Today, it has all caught up with me. I woke up with a headache that is finally subsiding. I needed coffee, so I stopped at Starbucks, which also means an Apple Fritter. YUCK. I love them, enjoyed it, but I'm not enjoying the after effects of the sugar right now. In fact, it may be the reason for my lack of sleep.

On the up side (roller-coaster today, I apologize), I was able to run my allotted 3.3 miles yesterday. Downer - did not get up for my morning lifting today. Upper - I will go after work and complete spinning. Upper - rest day tomorrow. Upper - will go to sleep really early tonight and take something to ensure I get the sleep.

So, yay for me. Yay for life. Boo for tiredness.

Crazy Week!

I've been gone...and I know all 2 of you who may or may not read my blog are totally missing me right now. However, I have an excuse. Albeit, probably not a great one.

So, crazy deadlines at work suck. Without going into the details of my work (cause it's boring to everyone but me) we have to build stuff using our software for the hospital. Every time I speak with my nurses about something I have built for them, we end up on a tangent about some other things they want and all of a sudden I have more work to do. people don't seem to understand the idea of deadlines. April 28th is looming and our people are coming in from Madison from Tuesday to Thursday. So, that's a few more days of not being able to build what I need. In the meantime, I've become a building machine. I sit at my desk with my headphones on (which, by the way, I need new music on my phone) and type away. So much fun!

In all seriousness, I need to come up with a plan for this blog. It was meant to be more of a chronicle of the things I do on a daily basis in relation to being a military wife. However, life in that regard has taken a small detour. Let's face it, he's just not gone that much anymore. This is good, despite how that last sentence sounded. So, I thought I'd go the workout and eating route. Not so much for me, I don't think. Unless I double post from Livestrong, there's no more typing about working out. At least not while I'm at a standstill in that department. Too much temptation. So, I'm at a loss. I may just decide to pick a random topic and go there for the day. Overall, I'd like to just post everyday. But, life spent on the computer is a life I have not gotten used to yet.

Back to it!

I went home last night after a long few days of work and am SUPER excited. Last weekend, the hubby and I spent the entire weekend planting and digging up our backyard. We wanted it to look beautiful. And it does! However, I am not a gardener, so I had no idea how much manual labor that really entails. A LOT!

So, anyway, we planted palm trees, removed them due to how big they were going to get, moved some of them and took others back. Then we planted some hibiscus, bulbs, and sage. I kill things, though. You've heard of the "brown thumb", but I have the black thumb of death. Every plant I have ever owned or come into contact with has died. My husband is extremely good at reviving them, but he shouldn't have to. I told myself that I was going to do better this time! I was going to take care of these plants and flowers to make it pretty outside. I realized though that I forgot to water them on Tuesday. So, I went home yesterday and watered them. Much to my surprise, there were already flowers!

I was SUPER excited! Here are a few of them:

These are Apricot Hibiscuses. My personal favorite! Look! 3 flowers!
This one is my husband's favorite. I forget what kind of Hibiscus it is, but it's red - his favorite color!

So, I am going to keep trying to take care of these puppies so they can be beautiful for a long time!

Interesting Week

So, this week has been busy. Busy at work, not so busy in life, but it's been tiring.

I have had ZERO, and I mean ZERO energy this week. Keeping up on workouts has been forceful. I used to pop out of bed in the morning excited to go to the gym before work because that meant that after work I had time to just sit and enjoy the great weather. However, last week was raining and really shot my motivation for getting up in the AM. So, this week was spent trying to get back to my morning routine.

I was able to wake up, but not make it to the gym. That piece was done after work. I even had to bring my stuff with me to work so that I wouldn't stop home first. If I did that, I'd never make it to the gym.

Yesterdays workout was after work, but was much more productive. I was able to do my NROL4W Stage 2 B2 workout and run my 2 miles without too much difficulty. Partly, I believe, due to the fact that I broke my eating plan and ate some junk (beef enchiladas and cookies). My energy level felt normal again after that.

See, I've been doing this "clean eating" thing for the past 2 weeks to see if it helped my stomach issues. Well, it did. I never, NEVER, knew what it felt like to eat and not feel anything afterwards. I always had a harsh full feeling, loud, noisy, disgusting stomach sounds (I know, TMI), and pain....lots of pain. Gone! All of it! I have the occasional gurgle now, but gone!

Gone was the energy this week because of it too. Maybe not the quality of the food being the blame, but the amount. I wasn't eating enough. I'd get around 1500 - 1600 calories for the day tops. I'd finish the day, with only dinner left with 1100 calories eaten total. So, I think my body was craving more calories, and the only thing I could do at work was eat crap. So, I did. I am going to strive to eat things that are healthy but higher in calories. Like nut butters, avocado, olive oil, etc. Hopefully that will solve the problem. Today, I think I'm projected to be up to 1200 calories before dinner. My total calorie goal is 1900 - 2000 on days I don't workout and 2200 on days I do. I'd like to net right around 1800 - 1900. High enough to build muscle, IMO, but not so high as to make me gain weight.

So, here's to health, wealth, and happiness (the middle one being the one I don't have yet)! And, here's to a better me!

Who knew running was a bloody sport.

So, funny story. Well, kinda funny. I've taken up running recently. I've been trying to make it to a 5K for a while, but the new goal is a 10K! This is great progress. However, I have run into a bit of a interesting problem. One of my left toes bleeds around the nail every time I run more than a mile or so. Usually it's only a little bit, nothing that really worried me, just pissed me off because I have to clean my sock. Last night, though, was a different story. I ran my 3 mile loop, came back home to stretch, looked at my shoe and it was SOAKED with blood. WTF! The weird part is that it never hurts, just bleeds. This was no different. I took my shoe off, looked at it, and learned that I now have a cut on the inside of one of my toes. So, I had to soak my sock, shoe, and the shoe insert (yes, I bled through this too).

Lifting today, due to that dilemma, was painful. Piece of crap running. Why did I decide to conquer you?

Speaking of lifting...I did my modified special workout from NROL4W Stage 1. I was tired and without motivation. So, I think it was crap. I thought I hated Mondays, apparently I hate Wednesdays more.

Finished Stage 1!

So, today was my last day of regular workouts for NROL4W Stage 1. Sitting at work today at a desk makes me realize how sore I get from not moving around so much. Life in the ER was all about run, run, run. Here it's sit, sit, sit. Then I go home, and yep, sit some more. I'm trying to get out of that rut. At least on the weekends.

However, today was interesting with eating. I brought my lunch, for one. That, of course, means I didn't want it once it came lunch time. I went to the cafeteria and really wanted a burger. Got a chicken sandwich instead. So glad I got that, so WISH I'd gotten the burger. The sandwich was GROSS! Cold, dry, tasteless. YUCK! But, it kept me on track for today.

So, totally not doing my homework for my Bible Study. I should, but I don't. Not really following my Lenten promise of reading scripture everyday either. Makes me sad. I should be able to do that. But, alas, I forget and a week goes by and then I remember I never did it. Ugh!

So, another rant on not following through with things. Such is my life. Always have high hopes, never stick with it. Like my new goal of wanting to see my abs by the summer. This means a reduction in body fat, and eating really healthy (don't even get me started on eating clean). So, yesterday my husband and I went to the movies and I brought a healthy muffin that I stashed in my purse. I ate it, and half my husband's popcorn. So much for that goal. He says I need to treat myself and that I do eat healthy most of the time. I feel that I don't eat healthy most of the time and treat myself ALL of the time. Only God knows the truth. Eating Clean was a new goal as well. HA! Do you KNOW how much processed food is out there? It's everywhere! AHHH! Save me from the processed foods!

BAH! I've got the Mondays!