A fork in the road

I have to admit I kind of bailed on this blog thing as soon as I started it, BUT a lot has been going on in the past month. There have been a LOT of changes in mine and Matt’s personal lives recently. I am very happy to say that I have been back at Wegmans, a company I will always love, working part-time for about a month. I absolutely love my new store and everyone I work with, as always. It feels like home again.

I am also ecstatic to announce that Matt has worked very hard and has finally been offered a job in Baltimore with a subsidiary of his current company. Bye-bye snowy cold dreary Buffalo, hello sunshine and warmer weather! Even though it was nearly 15 degrees colder in Baltimore yesterday I believe that was a fluke. Baltimore is usually warmer than New York. You can probably guess that we are really looking forward to this.

We have never experienced metro living, although we got a glimpse of it when we visited my brother who lives in Manhattan this past December. We plan on selling my car, since Matt’s is newer (and more compact since we’re probably going to be dealing with street parking). We are currently in the process of trying to find rental housing in the city of Baltimore without actually living there. Luckily, we have a friend down there who is willing to go above and beyond her call of duty and visit potential dwellings for us (we owe her big time for this!). Hopefully we will find something soon as we are moving in less than 30 days!!!!

So what am I going to do you ask? I am hoping to be able to transfer to a Wegmans in Maryland, although it will definitely be a little bit of a commute which I know won’t be the easiest. There are two different paths I am debating right now:

1. Building my career at Wegmans. There are many things to consider in this: do I want to stay with the company forever? I could start to take the management track, ultimately leading to a service team leader position, then pharmacy team leader, and decide where to go from there.

2. Pursue hospital pharmacy and become a pharmacy technician, the eventual goal being to go back to pharmacy school and become a pharmacist. I realize the very uphill battle in this one. The main question to myself: is it worth it?

I believe that life has a way of working itself out, but I’m also not the type of person to sit back and just let things happen. I know I need to work for whatever I want to do, so I’m just searching for an “a-ha” moment in which I figure out exactly what that is.

For now, I need to simplify my life (and the number of items we own) to prepare for our big move! What an exciting time!

one last thing….I really think baseball is quite boring but I love a good mascot…Go O’s!

Think of Form First When Running

Last week, I thought I had hit a wall in my running program. I was stuck on week 4, and didn’t feel ready to move on to week 5. I repeated week 4, and by the end it wasn’t any easier than the first time I tried it. I blamed it on my always too tight upper traps and pecs. I thought if I just do a little yoga before running maybe I can conquer this looming mountain before me.

Then I read a few blogs from professional runners and self-proclaimed fitness gurus digging for any advice I could find. 

Now, I’m not trying to become a professional runner. That is not and never has been my goal. I just want to work to improve myself and become more fit by running. So after reading countless posts with all kinds of advice, I decided to put a few ideas I found to the test.

I went to the gym today ready to tackle day 1 of week 5 of the C25K program. It consists of 31 minutes, starting with a warm-up of walking briskly for 5 minutes followed by alternating jogging for 5 minutes with walking for 3 minutes three times and a 5 minute cool down.

What I decided to do differently was 3-fold:

1. focus on form

I read differing opinions on where your foot should strike the ground for maximum efficiency with the least impact. I decided that aiming for the middle of the foot would be best, since it can absorb the shock and evenly distribute the force to the body. This worked for me! I believe that it took substantially less energy and that I was less tired in the end as opposed to striking with my heel. I also tried to focus on not overpronating even though this is a more difficult mechanical technique to fix.

Controlling arm swing is also vital. I would run with my elbows at 45 degrees, arms swinging across my body with my hands balled up in fists. After today, let me tell you that is no way to run. It is extremely inefficient and takes away from your forward motion. try to run with your elbows slightly bent and arms only slightly swinging back to front, not across your body. Try to keep your hands loose, you don’t need to be ready to slug the next person to jump in your way unless you run in a particularly dangerous part of town.

It is also crazily important to stand up straight since it is very easy to find yourself hunching over to propel yourself forward while running. Once I straightened my spine and centered my core over my hips my ability to breathe improved dramatically. This goes with my second point….

2. Find my breathing pattern

If you stand up straight, it is way easier to get air in an out of your lungs. Practice breathing with your diaphragm, NOT your accessory muscles like your back or shoulders (this I still need to work on though I’ve been trying for ages). Breathing with your diaphragm allows your lungs to expand to their full capacity, and gives you a lot more air to hold in your reservoir so you won’t feel out of breath as quickly.

Another trick to finding your breathing pattern is to be conscious of your foot strike as you breathe. I found that if I exhale immediately after striking with my right foot every 3 or so strides it is easiest for me to maintain my breathing pattern. My pattern tends to be inhale for 2 strikes, exhale for 3 strikes. I’m not sure whether this is the most efficient way to do it or not, but it’s working for me for now.

3. Remain conscious of my technique

It was difficult to remain focused throughout my run since I often like to let my mind wander, but whenever I felt like I was getting too tired or out of breath, I was able to switch my mind back to my technique. This will admittedly take a little more practice before it becomes automatic, but that’s okay. Taking short strides, focusing on breathing properly and keeping my body in good form definitely improved my running today.

The only other point I have is to make sure you are running slow enough to make this all happen. I had to slow my pace by 0.3 mph in order to be able to focus on these essentials so I was not huffing and puffing and trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing. Once my improvements become more automatic, I will speed back up and probably have a lot easier of a time doing so. I also know I absolutely need to do more core work. I HATE core work with a capital H but I have added it to my routine because I know it helps….but that’s for another post.

What running or exercise tips have worked for you? What hasn’t worked so well? I’d love some more pointers, especially things you have personally learned from.

A little laughter each day keeps the doctor away

Have you ever had one of those days where you’re just feeling down? You think nothing in the world can possibly pick you up….until….. someone makes you laugh. That’s right, laughter is sometimes the best medicine. I recently finished Tina Fey’s book, Bossypants. I would like to apologize to Ms. Fey, for I should have read your book much MUCH sooner! I’ve always known she was hilarious, but I guess I didn’t realize exactly how much her personality could shine through her writing. Her book made me LAUGH. There were several moments where she interjected her humor, without which would have still been a good book, but including those moments made it hers, and brought her writing to a level beyond my expectations. It truly was an enjoyable read and it got me thinking, it’s great to just laugh. So in honor of laughter, I’d like to share a few of the best laugh facts I’ve come across in my laughter research:

1. You can burn up to 40 calories laughing for 10 to 15 minutes

2. Animals that can laugh include rats, dogs, and chimps (and many more!)….although their laughter tends to be associated more with the act of play than humor

3. There is some evidence that laughter improves natural killer cell activity, which is important to the immune system and may be suppressed in cancer and HIV patients

4. Laughter Yoga is a thing- my yoga teacher actually introduced us to self-induced laughter- it feels quite silly at first, but is catching and if you “fake” laugh for long enough…eventually you’ll just be laughing at the fact that you’re laughing…and well, you get the point

5. Laughing after crawling out of bed in the morning may have a similar effect to that cup of coffee you haven’t quite gotten to yet

6. “Gelotology” is the term given to the study of laughter

7. You are 30 times more likely to laugh in the presence of others than you are alone- laughter is definitely contagious

8. For my science-oriented friends: laughter induces neurochemical changes in the brain that in addition to releasing feel-good neurotransmitters, increases gamma wave frequency which involves the entire brain and may help with memory

9. A six year old laughs about 3 times more than the typical adult

10. Like a smile, laughter crosses all ages, cultures, and language barriers and is universally recognized as a positive form of communication all over the world

In light of recent llama drama, I leave you with this….

Making Your Winter Wonderful

Who else could use a vacation right about now? I know, I seemingly have no right to complain since I haven’t had to go to work, or school, or do much of anything lately. I landed myself a part-time job back at my old stomping grounds by the way…excited to get back into the swing of life, but I hope there’s more on my plate in the future. After all, I have a scary amount of loans to start paying off soon.

Anyway, back to dreaming of a warmer place. People who have lived in Buffalo and the surrounding western New York area for their entire lives must have something that even us Syracusans do not have within. I don’t know how they do it. This winter has been particularly awful and I’m just SO SICK OF THE COLD! In the entire month of February, the temperature didn’t even reach above freezing. The good news is today the temperature climbed above freezing for the first time in 33 days! Is that something to be celebrating or what?

Since this is supposed to be an inspirational sort of blog, I will now stop complaining and give you a few pointers on making the most out of winter weather.

1. EXERCISE: It can improve your mood quite dramatically. Even if the treadmills look out upon the snowy tundra, it can seem kind of peaceful running in your own little world. I’m on week 5 of the C25K program, which claims to take you from being a couch potato to running a 5k in just 8 weeks of consistent training, progressively adding mileage each week. It’s working a lot better than my old method of running til I drop every couple days. They also tout a 10k app, half-marathon, marathon, and different fitness challenges for those who are up for it. The app interfaces well with other fitness programs including myfitnesspal, and your own music apps so you can listen to whatever suits you best while you run, and still have the C25K app “coaching” you when it’s time to switch to walking.

me shoveling the front yard in my younger days

2. BLAZE YOUR OWN TRAIL: I don’t have to tell all the fanatics of a fresh layer of powder out there that this weather is perfect for skiing, snowboarding or snowshoeing (as long as you avoid the -30 windchill days)! There is something about stopping in the middle of an untouched trail, listening to the quiet of the morning or night as you breathe in the fresh icy air around you. I haven’t been snowboarding in a few years, but just thinking about it makes me want to go dig my gear out of my parent’s shed.

3. VOLUNTEER: Nonprofit organizations are ALWAYS looking for volunteers. Find a cause you are passionate about and ask how you can help. You might even be able to help from your own living room as many organizations will be happy to have you tweet and share their way to a social media prominence. Volunteermatch.org will match your passion to a local organization that needs your help!

4. Of course if you feel like being the ultimate couch potato…you can always curl up with netflix or a good book and your cute cat, and indulge in some “me” time.

The Reason Behind This Blog

I’m creating this blog not only to help myself, but hopefully to help other people. I have a long history working in customer service, and most recently and notably working as a health care professional. For the time being, my dreams have been put on hold. But does that mean that my dreams aren’t meant to be? I won’t take no for an answer.

I have a bachelor’s degree in Communications, and I recently left pharmacy school for reasons beyond my control. My long term goal (I think) is to go back to pharmacy school and finish what I started. However, I could also see myself eventually getting a Master’s of Public Health degree. I know I will be incredibly satisfied with a career in public health, whether I become a pharmacist or not. These are a couple of the many different avenues that I am exploring at this time.

For now, I am focused on doing what I need to do, for me. One of the things I’ve been thinking about for a week or so is starting this blog. Another thing I’ve been able to do is spend more time with my fiancé Matt. My loving fiancé is 100% supportive of me. I can’t say that enough now that I have been out of work for a little over the month. Although I know he not so secretly enjoys that his lunch is made for him nearly every day. I definitely have way too much time on my hands devoted to housewifery.

All kidding aside, I’ve been doing some serious introspection, and many of my thoughts will come out through this blog. My goal is to make my posts thoughtful, meaningful, and helpful to you, and that by helping you I hope to find this a rewarding experience for myself. So how do I intend to help you? In this crazy fast-paced life, If you haven’t been spending as much time with your loved ones as you would like, or haven’t been able to stop and reflect inward, or do what you actually want to do instead of what you feel that you need to do, I ask you to stop. Stop where you are and what you are doing and breathe for a minute. Take time to relax, spend time with those you love, and love the life you live. I am starting small, but I have a vision for this blog that is much larger, and I hope you continue to follow me in my journey.