HUGE Financial Decision

Well, I made a pretty big decision while I was in the shower yesterday morning and after talking to Corey and my Mom about it, I have come to a conclusion. So, let me walk you through my line of thinking....

I was thinking about student loan interest and how much it sucks to have interest on your student loan (at $6.93/day or about $207/month). Then I got to thinking about income taxes and how student loan interest is an awesome income tax deduction. So if I pay $2400 this year in student loan interest, that will be an extra $2400 that I will get back on my taxes. So in effect, student loans are interest free! (assuming you make enough money to have to use that deduction which I most certainly will!). So on that line of thinking, I started wondering about why I was paying between $1200 and $2000 every month on my student loan... when, even at $1200/month, it will still take me almost 3 years to pay it off.

Also, it seems like I never have money and I'm always stressing because I will never be able to afford to own a home and other things like this. So, I've decided to pay between $600 and $1000 per month on my student loan and no more. At $600/month, that sucker will be gone in 6 years, which is much better than over 9 years so I'll still be doing well and only 31 when it is paid off. When I can afford to put a little extra on it, I will do that, but I am not going to exceed $1000/month. At about $1000/month, it will be close to 4 years. With my extra money I am going to put it in my savings account FOR ME! So this can be used to go towards a trip? A downpayment on a house maybe in the future? or to help fund my move back to the East Coast in 1-2 years time? If nothing else, I can always save a bunch, have no idea what to do with it and slap it on the student loan anyways.

Whether this is a sound financial move or not has yet to be seen. I think I will be less inclined to kill myself with OT which will definetly benefit my health. Also, I only have about two more payments left on my furniture and that will free up an extra $275/month which will be nice. If I feel like I'm being wasteful with the extra money I have in the bank, then I will revert back to putting more on my student loan. I'll trial it over the summer and come up with a conclusion.

Any thoughts or suggestions about student loans? I would appreciate comments!

Sick Again!

Well, it seems I am sick again! :( What is up with that? There on Saturday I woke up with a sore throat and sniffles all day long.... along with dreaded chest pain/shortness of breathe. Sore throat continued into Sunday and progressed to cough on Monday. The cough got worse today and somehow I still managed to get out for a run this morning (4.45 km outdoors!!!). Anyways, I went to sleep this afternoon to prep for my night shift and when I woke up hacking up a lung, wishing for a bilat lung transplant and barely able to breathe.... I decided to call in sick.

Ugh. Hopefully a good night of sleep will put me back to normal tomorrow. Tomorrow Corey and I will be celebrating THREE YEARS TOGETHER!!! Hard to believe! So I hope I am feeling up to going out for supper.

The on Friday I have to work dayshift and I'm off this weekend. If I'm sick all weekend, I will be so upset especially considering the last weekend I was off I was suffering from Norwalk. Ugh.

Yeah, so my run this morning went AWESOME! I went to the park and ran 4.45 km. I felt like I could have went further but I just ran around Muskoseepi Park and didn't want to go any further. Anyways, I did run/walk intervals.... 3+1, 4+1, 4+1, 5+1, 3.5+1. I realize that I run much faster outside than at the gym which is strange... so perhaps I will try running faster at the gym and push myself a little harder even if it means the time spent on the treadmill is reduced. For my next run in the park (which should be on Sunday maybe?) I am going to do intervals of 4+1 and mix in one to two 5+1 and see how it goes.

Anyways, I think I will drink some neo-citran, cut some exercises out of my Self Magazine to save for later and get some sleep. Hopefully I don't die.

Tuesday's Plan! (and result)

I feel like I need to motivate myself for tomorrow and since I am wide awake here, why not commit to have a productive day on my blog. I'll map out my day, including meals, exercise and errands here and cross it off as I go.

10 a.m. 6:45 a.m. WAKE UP! I'm planning to sleep in and then get breakfast. I tried sleeping in.... it just didn't happen.

breakfast: 1/2 everything bagel with 1 tbsp light cream cheese
1 slice cheese
1 scrambled egg
1 fat free yogurt
1 orange
Black coffee
Total Calories: 420

I was too hungry to wait for me to cook something, so I had Kashi Go Lean instead. CALORIES: 285

Then, I plan to:
1) do Laundry DONE! .... the rest on this list I have to do later since it was too early to call anyone... I will cross off as I go.
2) Make appointment for a massage
3) Make Dr's appointment to see about my eczema
4) Make an optometrist's appointment (need to find one first)
5) Make a dentist's appointment (I am way way overdue for a cleaning!)
K.... so I didn't do any of these things! Oops. Actually after thinking about it, I should wait until I check 3s binder to see when I can pick up a few OT shifts there because I really want to get another 7000 down on my loan by the end of the summer and with the OT I have booked so far, I will probably only get around 5000.

By noon, all of that should be taken care of and I should be ready to go to the gym!

At the gym: (at 9:40 a.m.)
1) Weight machines.... 3 sets of 10-12 reps fast using lower weights than
usually.... should take about a half hour. DONE!
2) Core strengthening.... i.e. abs.... i.e. HELL. Should take me about 10-15
mins. DONE!
3) Run on the treadmill.... breathing hasn't been great since I woke up on
Saturday, but hopefully with my ventolin I will get going to a good pace
and run for a good 45 mins. Ran for 48 mins and a total of 7.55 km!
4) Cool down on the bike for 10-15 mins unless I'm just way too exhausted. I was too tired to even think about biking.
5) Stretch for 5-10 mins. DONE!

Then I'll head home.... will probably be close to 2:30 by now and I will grab a bite to eat....
SMOOTHIE!!! Made with the following:
- 1 banana
- 1/4 cup blueberries
- 1/4 cup strawberries
- 1 yogurt
- 1/2 cup milk
I'm drinking this right now and it is HEAVENLY!
Total Calories: 320 (605)

After I get my smoothie, I will take a quick shower and before heading out the door to run some errands, I'll have a quick snack lunch of:
1) Veggies
2) Cheese Stick
Bagel sandwich with an egg, spinach, cheese slice, cucumber and cream cheese.
Total Calories: 550 (1155)

Then I need to:
Get some pants hemmed
Gas up the car
Wander aimlessly around GP trying not to spend my money....
Once again, I failed miserably at this because .... well, I did wander aimlessly looking for Cassandra's place and got lost because I was looking for her Jeep and it wasn't even parking in her driveway and all the houses look the same, I got detoured because of construction. ugh.

By the time I do all this, it will be time to go home and get ready for supper.

I read most of the afternoon after that excursion. And had a healthy snack of cheese stick and apple for 100 calories = 1255.

On the supper menu:
1) Chicken tacos with cheese, spinach, salsa and sour cream.
2) Spinach salad with a fat free vinaigrette salad dressing.
3) Maybe some rice or something?
Total Calories: 450
(1705)

After supper, Before supper maybe a walk in the park? Or I will do some yoga ..... 45 mins and it was awesome!possibly.

Then later in the night I always get a bit peckish, so I will get some Kashi Go Lean prior to bed. Gotta think of another night time snack.
Total Calories: 285 (1780-1930)

Met Kari for coffee and afterwards I ate half of a donut... also had a chocolate pudding.

Total Calories for the day: 1905. SEems like a lot, but I worked off like 825, so I'm good!

Good day overall. Sorry if this post was horrible!

OMG.... that's a lot of calories and a lot of food and a lot of things to do.

Also, I think I'm starting to obsess over this eating/exercise thing too much. Maybe its time to get a personal trainer to keep me on track???

Anyways, I will update as the day continues.... god, I really have no life!

Week # 6 Conclusion + Week # 7 Plan!

WEEK # 6 CONCLUSION

Cardio
I did cardio 6/7 days last week.... although two of those days were brisk 25 min walks during my supper days. I also ran at the gym twice (between 6.5-7 km) and ran in the park once (4.3 km). I did one day where I did the crosstrainer, rower and bike. I am overall happy with this but would like to get in more cardio in the form of a class or two or some swimming... I think I will take up swimming in mid-June.

Strength Training
I did 3 days of strength training... two with the weights at the gym and one doing some exercises from the WH Training Guide. Overall I felt good about it... although now that I haven't done it since Friday I am feeling so flabby and fat. I think I will increase strength training to every second day, meaning that some weeks will be 4 days.... we'll see how that works out.

Eating
I had trouble in this area this past week. I took a "free" day which of course, is only cheating myself. I had planned for the Mary Brown's but went a little overboard. Anyways, all was no lost. On the other days I averaged almost 1700 calories/day... between 1200 and 1900. But I'm noticing my portion sizes are growing so I don't know how accurate it is really which worries me. I know twice (three times counting the free day) I totally did not listen to my body at supper time telling me to stop or slow down and ended up feeling so full (and therefore feeling fat and bloated) afterwards. ugh. So gotta watch that.

Weight
Well, on Monday I was elated to see 142.5 on the scale. I was even more shocked on Friday to see the scale at 142!!!!! AMAZING!


WEEK #7 PLAN

Cardio
1) Run at the gym twice for 45 mins each. (Tues and Thurs)
2) Run in park twice for 25 mins/walk 10 mins. (Sat and Sun)
3) Do the Crosstrainer/Rower/Bike one or two times during the week (Wed and Fri)
4) Maybe .... MAYBE.... go to Spin Class on Tues to try it out.

Strength Training
1) Tues, Thurs and Sat. Not sure what I'm doing for it yet.
2) Might try for yoga DVD one day... but that hasn't worked out for me yet.

Eating
1) Watch portion sizes.
2) Eat on average, 1700-1800 calories a day.
3) Save some calories one day on the weekend to have a good drunk, but not drink too much... hopefully I'm a cheap drunk because I don't want to waste my calories on it.

Weight
Well, considering my huge loss last week, I would be happy to stay the same. Even if I gained a maximum of 1.5 lbs, I would be okay with that.

142.5!!!!

I am FREAKING OUT!!!!

I have NEVER EVER seen this # on the scale.... at least not since I can reasonably remember.

I know it's probably due to Norwalk Virus... or could be because I used a different scale.... BUT STILL! It shows me that IT IS POSSIBLE to see this # again!!!!! It just makes things seem more achievable... even if I am back up to 145-146 the next time I weigh I will know that this # actually does exist on the scale!

Excuse me while I do my happy dance!