It’s Been a Week?

I can’t believe it’s already Friday. This class may kill me. How did I survive college? I mean, in college I did 4 or 5 classes at one time!!! Yes, I understand that I have a full-time job, a house, a kid, and a husband, but in college I had a job, classes, clubs, and um…nothing else because I was a hard worker who diligently did her homework. *ahem*

I think the early mornings at work are getting to me. I get up at 6 and get the kid up to be out the door at 7 (hopefully). I shower and get dressed. I get OP up, change her diaper, get her banana, dressed, brush her teeth, and brush her hair. Then I drop her off and finally get to eat breakfast. God forbid I eat in front of her because then it’s “My banana!” or “My english muffin.” Partly, I don’t want to deal with it, but mainly I just don’t have time to eat between my shower and getting her together. And yes, Daddy helps to. Don’t go flaming him. I try to ease the mornings by packing my lunch, breakfast, and gym clothes the night before. Plus I try to set out my work clothes so I have less to think about in the morning. I also do lab homework or read after OP goes to bed. It’s tiring just writing that out.

All the “woe is me” aside (and can I say wow, I’m such a whiner), I am enjoying the class and am happy I’m taking it. The Husband is helping out a lot around the house which makes things easier. Life is so much easier when you marry someone who can clean.

Speaking of OP, which I did 2 paragraphs above, she is now hitting Mommy. Not Daddy, mind you, just Mommy. We are working on discipline but I expect it will take a while. Apparently, I’m the Rodney Dangerfield of our household.

I think I’m going to try something weird with her. The next time she starts to hit, I’m going to see if I can get her to yell instead. You can tell she’s going to hit, she pulls her arm back and thinks about it. She knows it’s wrong, but she’s frustrated and wants her way/can’t get words out/is protesting/etc. I’m hoping if I have her yell instead because she’s mad, then maybe it will distract her and get her frustration out. I read it online and thought it might be interesting to try. If it doesn’t work, there’s always back to what we’ve been doing–locking her in the stocks.

Of course, we don’t do that. Stop calling child services.

In positive, non-hitting news, OP is more inclined to sit on the potty. Not that she does anything on the potty. She just likes to sit on it–sometimes fully clothed, sometimes naked, sometimes in between. We are letting her dictate the whole process since she’s so young and not quite ready for potty training. OP did tell daycare that she had to poop on the potty, sat there for 2 minutes, got up, and then pooped in her diaper 15 minutes later. And the other night, she ran into the bathroom and peed on the floor while running around n@ked before bath. Hey it’s progress! She could have stayed where she was and peed on the rug.

I have knitting with the girls this weekend and hope to make progress on the Husband’s scarf. I’m almost 2 pattern repeats in and they are going extremely fast, which makes me happy. It’s starting to drive me batty so I do need to start setting up my next project for the breaks it will afford. What’s my next project? Why a Doctor Who purse of course! I’m going to take all the leftover yarn from the Doctor Who scarf and knit a felted purse. If it’s hideous, OP will get a present and she LOVES purses. Maybe I can get her to smack that.

Mommy thinks I hit her because I'm mad. I just like to annoy her. Wait until I really refine guilt and manipulation. Then she's mine!

Campfires in Exercise Science

You may be sitting their with a question mark over your head trying to figure out what campfires have to do with an exercise science. If you can follow this awesome visual our professor used in class (and I don’t totally butcher it) you’ll understand. Hopefully you’ll have the same a-ha moment I had.

It almost makes me feel toasty, but then I realize it's because it's unseasonably warm.

When you build a campfire, you put logs down. Some people put newspapers under the logs. However, when you light the newspaper it lights fast but burns out quick–the logs don’t have enough time to catch from the newspaper. To build a good fire, you use kindling (like twigs) that catch quickly but burn longer. The longer burn from the kindling will ignite the logs and your fire will burn.

This is very simplistic, obviously, but think of it like this. The newspaper is your simple carbs–white rice, processed foods, white bread, etc. The kindling is your complex carbs–vegetables, beans, whole grains, etc. The logs are fat. It is infinitely harder to lose weight if you eat simple carbs. Your body will work better and more harmoniously, if you start off with complex carbs and in turn, you will burn fat better.

It’s simple and beautiful, and it really resonated with me. Obviously, it doesn’t include a lot of the why it works–that starts getting into chemical reactions and mind-numbingly scientific stuff–nor does it address other issues (like quantity), but it makes it very clear why you should look at what you eat.