Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyones' holidays are happy and full of life, cheer, good times, and hopefully not too much alcohol! :) Mine so far has been great, minus the high calorie foods! Oh, don't get me wrong, I love the foods. It's the calories I don't like. But, it's okay! I have complete and utter faith that I will pull through after the holidays and burn off every single one of them. Made it to the gym the last couple of days and did mostly strength training just like Jamie Eason advises to do. I think I understand why now, too, it's because if you use up all of your energy and food calories on cardio, which would take those extra calories to use right away, then if you try to strength train after using the treadmill, it won't be as efficient and you wont as easily be able to build muscle. The problem with not building muscle, then, is that you wont get the benefit of having calories burned at all times of the day, such as during sleep and rest, and that is a benefit that you DONT really get with doing cardio. So, long story short, I've been refraining from doing cardiovascular exercises, namely the infamous treadmill (which as you know is like me favorite), and been just sticking with the free weights and other weight machines when I go to the gym.

Please check out my newest little videos I've uploaded on YouTube and subscribe to my channel because I have every intention of keeping active on there and staying involved with updates and progress reports and the like~ Here is my newest home video but there are several others there so far (I think I have 7 total, but I've listed some as private. I'll open them up to the public once I've reached my goal. :)

I don't know about everyone else, but I am going to have a Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo   kind of Christmas!   

Have a great day! XOXOXO ---Rickie

Exercise much?

SO~ I went to the gym tonight for 2 hours again, an hour and a half on the treadmill again. It was great. I wanted to keep going and everything was just fine, except for the development of blisters. I think I need to wear thicker socks, or tie my shoes tighter. When I got home, I cooked some salmon and had that with a tiny bit of tartar sauce. It was delicious.

I re-started up an account on  BodyBuilders.com and my username on there is Myoho22. :) I also think I might start actually keeping my YouTube Channel active. I started one video a year ago and then stopped because my old Toshiba lap top had a crappy webcam on it and the sound was all distorted and fuzzy. Now that I have my new Apple lap top, it seems to be working fine, and I found out by recording my first test video. This was a video I just made about a half hour ago and its' primary purpose it to check whether or not my new lap top would have a sufficient webcam in which to use on a regular basis for creating fitness, diet, and workout updates (among what ever else I may throw in there!). It seems like it worked, but please let me know if it doesn't on your computer. :)   My email address is ericajeanjohnson@comcast.net.

Here is me today, don't I look like a hot mess? Haha. Well, I somewhat am a hot mess, but I'm okay with that. I tried to sell some clothes at Plato's Closet today and the girl who was working, who I bet wasn't a day older than 15 or 16, (if the legal working age were younger, I'd assume even younger!) told me they all looked too excessively worn. What?! Almost all of the clothes in the basket I brought were practically brand new, some still with tags. And they were all name brand. Since the clothes were all still folded perfectly, I can only assume that since the store was too busy she just didn't even go through them at all.And I am really trying to get rid of a ton of clothes. I have too many and not enough space to store them anymore! I only have one dresser.

Anyways. I have been taking Hydroxycut for like 3 weeks now. It makes me so queasy! Tummy aches all day, and I don't like that - but it does help significantly reduce my appetite. Went to McDonalds tonight because there's not much desirable food in the house, and I feel guilty for eating it now. Hate when that happens! But, I did an hour and 35 minutes on the treadmill two days ago, and the day before that I did 60 minutes on the treadmill - and it was with an incline both days. I am feeling pretty good about that and I just have to remind myself to keep being patient.

Got my kids' books in the mail today. Many of them are about fairies. I can't wait to read them. I might just read them for my OWN pleasure, even before having kids, lol. :)

Oh, the excitement.

Hah. I wish I could complete that sentence (of the blog title). But, I ordered a few baby things. Yes, I'm THAT excited and not only excited, but just sincerely want to be nice n' ready for when I have children. So, I got a few books:

• Lazy Jack
• Barney & Baby Bops Band A Story About Sharing
• Cool Moves
• Dora's Big Birthday Adventures
• Pooh Just Be Nice To Your Little Friends
• Just Me And My Mom
• Young Rosa Parks
• Lost In The Woods
• King of the Golden Mountain
• No Jumping On The Bed
• Caleb & Kate 
• Beck And The Great Berry Battle
•  Vidia And The Fairy Crown
•  Iridessa, Lost at Sea
•  Fira & the Full Moon
•  A Masterpiece for Bess
•  Rani In The Mermaid Lagoon
•  A Visit With The Fairies
•  Tinker Bell
•  Sprite's Secret
•  Sporty Sprite
•  The Greedy Gremlin
•  Watercolor Fairies
•  Wellspring of Magic
•  The Little Book of Fairy Land
•  How Zinnia Got Her Name
•  Flower Fairies of the Summer
•  Strawberry's New Friend
•  The Fairy House
•  Butterfly Meadow-Dazzle's First Day
•  Jewel Kingdom - The Sapphire Princess Helps A Mermaid
•  The Girls In The Circle
•  Fancy Nancy: Poison Ivy Expert
•  Polar Bears Past Bedtime
• On The Day You Were Born
• Corduroy's Christmas
• Mooseltoe
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
• So that's what I got for now. I will keep collecting things like this, little by little. It will be awesome in years to come for me to look back at this blog and see what I "used to write about"...considering the topic and all. My co-worker and friend, Jocelyna, and I, were somewhat browsing through a videos on BabyCenter.com, they have everything from demonstrating how to have water safety with infants, to how to change diapers, to how to swaddle a baby, to live births and breastfeeding instructional videos! Such a great resource, in my opinion, for learning more and brushing up on parenting skills. I will speak for myself on that one, since the subject has become increasingly more important to me :)

Oh, and I've decided on a boy name:

Anders!! (could be pronounced with a long A or short A... whichever tickles your fancy).
I also ordered MYSELF a book: It's one I read in grade school, and I loved every last page of it. It's called  Number The Stars. Another historical fiction book about the Holocaust. I can't wait to read it again, kind of like how I have read another favorite book of mine, Ender's Game, at least a dozen times. :)

KIDS!!

I have been feeling a big emptiness/void in the arena of parenting and motherhood. Just the deepest sorrow and emptiness ever! With my maternal urges as strong as they've been as of late, I have been looking into names I would name my son/daughter if I have one. (or should I say when? Hah!).

Boys names I like (but not limited to these, of course):
Ethan
Anders
Bjorn
Leif
Klaus
Theodore
Tobias
Benjamin
Isaac
James
William
Isaiah
Teagan
Devon
Drake

Girls names I like (again, not a comprehensive list):
Carleigh
Annalisa
Hannah
Madison
Holly
Cassandra
Alisha
Charlotte
Marilyn
Meghan
Contessa
Tristessa
Tessa
Taryn
Ananda
Sharice
Kayla


 I would put down more, but that's just a brief listing - I am somewhat leaning toward naming my son/daughter a Scandanavian, Norwegian, or Swedish name, but I could also go for Hebrew name, or one that has nothing to do whatsoever with my own heritage and the heritage of those I consider family. The truth is this has been on my mind very strongly for quite some time now, but I've been biting my tongue on the subject because of all the different feelings I get that are associated with parenting and the reasons behind that. I know that I plan to do it right this time around. I want to be a super mom!

I was reading earlier about proper nutrition for during pregnancy, because I think with my last pregnancy 10 years ago I didn't have a clue what to eat or how to take care of myself for optimal health of the fetus and soon-to-be newborn baby. Now that I'm older and wiser, I am so very confident this could turn out to be the best thing that has ever happened to me.

reflections

The end of the year is nearing, and all I can say is 2011 was absolutely crazy. My mother would say, "Esho funi, my dear".   Esho funi is such a wonderful concept, and one that I hold in high regard. I believe in it 100%, but sometimes it is easy to forget that you and your environment are one in the same.
If any given thing is not going right then I try to find out what is going on inside myself to manifest such realities in my daily life. It is when I forget the oneness of self and environment that I find the most trouble!!

Oy!

It has been a few weeks (or so?) since I have updated my blog and I missed it, so, here I am again... Just writing to update, I will have to re-start my couch to 5k program because I let 4 days pass in between training sessions which made it hard for me, on the 5th day back to the gym, to run even a minute and a half again. But, I've been doing the treadmill almost every day now for about a week and what I've been doing is an incline of anywhere between 3.5 - 8.5 and a speed between 2.5  -  3.5. This helps me significantly :) I feel stronger already! I was sick for awhile this past week but made myself go to the gym anyways. It has been a hard fight and a struggle to get my momentum going in the direction I want it going in, but I will not give up!! :) I am going to keep persisting until I make it where I want to be.

My sister Molly and I have been talking about renting a house together and having a commune with some of our friends. Maybe even, in the future, buying a duplex together and she'd live in one half and I in the other. Something fun to think about! I want a clawfoot bathtub, hardwood floors, floor to ceiling windows, a breakfast nook in the kitchen.. ahhhh must allow cats and dogs because I plan to get a german shepherd (and already have two loveable cats).


Noah and I have made some great foods together lately. We started with making some noodles, then with the food processor blended together some tomatoes, avacadoes, pesto, basil, spinach, and freshly minced garlic to use as the pasta sauce. The sauce turned out GREEN! because of the spinach and avacadoes, but was still very tasty and it felt like we were eating a green pasta dish. (and I suppose we were). Then, yesterday we made a soup all from scratch: wild rice, chicken, carrots, celery, spaetzle, rosemary, sage, and chicken broth. YUM.

I just registered for my Spring 2012 semester classes. I will be taking:

Math 70 - Introductory Algebra
Biology 1100 - Introduction to Biology w/ Lab
History 1020 - Contemporary World History: Issues, and
Women's Studies 2212 - Ecofeminism

That's 15 credits! Full time again, baybay! I am doing good! I am knocking these credits out and learning SO much. It's helping me tremendously to be in school right now. I will be taking a tour of St. Catherine's University next week for their Nursing program.





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