Eating Healthy

As I have mentioned before I workout on a regular basis, but I haven’t ever really tried to eat healthy with my workouts. I just used workouts so I could still eat what I want and not have to worry about gaining unhealthy weight. About a week or so ago I decided to try and eat healthy.

I did not have a specific diet in mind to follow I just wanted to cut out some of the unhealthy foods and replace them with healthy options, and just to eat smaller portions. So basically instead of eating chips for a snack I’d have some fruit or granola bar or something along those lines. Replacing snacks was the easy part I didn’t find it difficult to eat fruits instead of something unhealthy, but eating less now that was the hard part.

Ever since I can remember I’ve always been a big eater because I’ve always been very active with sports so I needed the food to have enough energy to make it through the day. So now that I am trying to eat less I’ve noticed a few differences in my body. The biggest difference is that I always feel hungry, but I’m hoping that eventually I get used to not eating as much and won’t feel hungry. Also I’ve already lost a couple pounds with just cutting out junk food and eating less.

Besides always feeling hungry, but that should go away soon, I am happy that I am eating healthier along with exercising regularly. Just from doing this for a week I already feel healthier and hopefully soon I’ll be down to my goal weight.

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Troubles with Puppies!

I talked a few weeks ago about getting a puppy and how great they are, now I’m not so sure. Although Remi, my dog, is still extremely cute and playful but on the other hand she is a handful now. All she does is chew on everything. Nothing is safe in my apartment.

Remi will literally chew on anything she can get her mouth on. She really likes to chew on dirty socks and hide them, I’ve lost count of how many socks I’m missing. She also has ruined a few decks of playing cards now too, that was not fun to clean up there were bits of playing cards all over the floor.

Not only does she chew on everything she also is really into biting me now. It doesn’t always hurt but every once in a while she gets me pretty good and it does hurt a little. I’m hoping she grows out of this phase pretty quick.

Although she does chew on everything and bite me every now and again, she has learned some good things. She now knows to go to the door if she has to go outside to go to the bathroom. She loves playing fetch with me and that is good because she will play until she is exhausted, then she doesn’t have the energy to bite me. Also, she has learned to sit down and lay down then roll over, which I think is pretty funny to watch.

Puppies can cause a lot of problems and chew everything up, but I am glad I have her. It if fun to watch her when she falls over things or barks at toilet brushes, but puppies are a lot of work. Unless you have plenty of time and patience you should really think twice about getting a dog.

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Yoga

Over the past few years I’ve heard a lot of people talking about yoga and how they really enjoyed it. I would always say that yoga isn’t for me or something to that effect. But, a few days ago I went to a yoga class. I only did this because it was for my exercise psychology class, we were seeing how yoga effects stress and anxiety. When I first learned that we were going to do yoga for a class period I laughed to myself and thought this could be interesting.

The day of the class arrived and I was thinking this was going to be terrible and that I just want to get it over with. As the class went of I started to change my mind about the whole yoga thing, I found myself enjoying the class. This doesn’t mean that I was doing all the right movements or anything but I was enjoying trying to do the right moves. At the end of the class I noticed that I was feeling very relaxed and glad that my teacher made us do a yoga class, if it had not been for my teacher I never would have tried a class.

I’m not saying that I will do yoga on a regular basis but from time to time I think I might do a class here and there to try and become more flexible. If you are like me and think that yoga isn’t for you and that you won’t enjoy, find a free class somewhere and give it a try you might be surprised and enjoy it.

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Puppies!

What is one thing that when you are feeling down or mad they always put a smile on your face? The answer is simple, puppies. I’m not sure why they always put a smile, but it seems that no matter what the situation they always put me in a better mood.

Although puppies are good at making you happier they are also a lot of work. Recently I became an owner of an eight week old golden retriever and although she is very cute she is a lot of work. Right now she likes to chew on everything and I mean everything, just today I caught her trying to chew on a wall. It’s hard to get mad a puppy when they do something like because I’m trying to figure out why she chose a wall to chew on when she has plenty of toys.

Also training puppies is a lot of work, but I enjoy doing that. It is rewarding to see the puppy listen to you when you give them a command. Teaching them to play games with you is fun too, and also it wears out your puppy so that way they will want to sleep later on and that allows you to be able to sleep too. So if you have the time and patients to take care of puppy I recommend you adopt one or buy one from a breeder because they are a lot of fun.

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The NFL in Years to Come

For those of us who regularly watch the NFL you have probably noticed that there are a lot more penalty flags being thrown. Is this because players are less disciplined or because players are playing dirty now? It’s because the NFL adds so many new rules that players can’t keep straight in their heads what they can and can’t do.

A few years back I remember watching the receivers catch a pass across the middle and being layed out by a linebacker, but they can’t do that now because they claim he was a “defenseless receiver”. If you are playing in the NFL, which remember is pro football, you are not “defenseless” you know exactly what you signed up for.

They have also moved the kickoff yard line up, so this way it limits the number of returns to help prevent injury. To me it gets boring watching the balls sail through the back of the endzone resulting in a touchback, where the receiving team gets the ball at the 20 yard line.

I wish the NFL would go back to the day where you got to see hard, legal, hits and not have a penalty flag thrown for it. After all it is football, a contact sport. With all these new rules being implemented where will the NFL be in years to come? Will it be grown men playing flag football because tackling somebody is just too dangerous? I guess only time will tell.

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Distractions in Class

During college one important thing that most college students have is a laptop. Laptops are a very useful tool to help you make it through your college years. It’s great to take notes on or to look at the power points the teacher posted, but is it helpful when you take it to class just to look at Facebook?

It never fails that no matter what class I am in somebody has their laptop out but not to take notes, they are on Facebook or some other social media site. It’s not limited to social media though I’ve seen girls shopping for swimsuits while the teacher is teaching. I wasn’t aware that the teacher was lecturing about swimsuits that day, I thought I signed up for human anatomy not swimsuits 101.

To me this is just rude to sit in class and not pay attention to what the teacher has to say. Listen to what the teacher is saying, Facebook is still going to be there after class. And if you can’t go an hour without checking your Facebook then you need to get some form of help for internet addiction. I mean what’s so important that you can’t go an hour without looking at social media? I’ve gone months without looking at my Facebook page and I survived just fine without it.

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Kids and Their Phone

With all the technology that is available to us in today’s society it does not surprise me that most people have a smart phone. What does surprise me is the number of children that have a smart phone. To me there is no reason that a child under the age of at least 13 should have a smart phone. I understand giving them a basic phone so that way they can call their parents if they need something but other than that they don’t need a phone.

I did not get a phone until I was 16 years old and I only got one because I had just got my license and my parents didn’t want me driving without a phone. I managed to survive that long without having a phone, but today there are kids getting phones under the age of nine. My little cousin got an iPhone for her ninth birthday, what does a nine year old need with an iPhone? To me that just doesn’t make sense.

Phones are destroying the capability of face to face conversations. When I go out to a restaurant I like to look around to all the couples out on a date and see them both staring at their phones for the whole meal, they can’t make it one meal without looking at their phones. What’s on their phones that is so important they can’t put their phone down to enjoy a meal with the person next to them. Giving phones to children is just making this problem worse, because I’ve seen children who would rather sit and play a game on their phone rather than play a game outside with other children their own age. Something needs to change about giving smart phones to children before they know how to use them correctly, if parents keep giving smart phones to their children they are just encouraging bad habits to start at an early age.

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NFL Gone Violent

Here recently there have been reports of NFL players committed acts of domestic violence and child abuse. In my opinion one case of this is too many but the fact that there has been more than one instance of this is alarming. There is no reason to commit these types of crimes especially if you are representing a NFL football team which has thousands of young children looking up to the players in the league.

For the most part the players have been suspended from playing in games but I think more can be done. I think that the players who have committed these acts should never be allowed to play in the league again. They have put a poor image on the NFL and what it stands for. I also believe that they should be punished legally to the full extent of the law. The men who play in the NFL should act as role models to the young people of their audience. Since there are so many children that follow a football team and look up to the players of that team when a player does something like this this is setting a bad example.

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Never Enough Time!

For those of you who do not know I am currently a college student, and as most college students understand there is a lot of work that needs to be done for all the classes you may be taking. Also, as most college students can relate to there never seems to be enough time to get all of your work done. It seems that all teacher plan to make everything due on the same day, this makes it a mad rush to get everything done for every class and complete it on time.

For me the biggest problem I have is procrastination. It seems that I always put things off until the last minute and then I am stressed out because I have to force myself to sit down and complete my assignments. I understand that this is my fault but it is hard to juggle a social life, working out, going to class, and just having some down time to lay around. I try to get some work done ahead of time but it seems like when I try that something comes up that takes my attention away from what I was doing.

A good fix to this problem that may help me stay ahead is a week before something is due start spending 30 minutes a day working on it. This will prevent the rush the night before it is due to get it done so it won’t be late. The hard part of this fix is making myself to sit down a week ahead of time and start working on the assignment. Although I know that this would help me out I can’t make any guarantees that this will be the approach I decide to take.

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Crossfit in a nutshell

What is Crossfit? You may of heard about it, but don’t know exactly what it is. A technical definition is constantly varied functional movements at high intensity. Now after reading that you may be more confused than you were before starting to read this post. A simpler definition, and how I describe it to people, is it’s a type of workout program where the workouts are always changing so that way your body does not get used to doing the same thing over and over again.

Changing the workouts around helps you to constantly get stronger and not get stuck doing the same amount of weight. I used to just go to the gym to lift weights, but that got boring to me just walking around the weight room and doing a set of something here and there. Eventually I quit going to the gym because it was not fun anymore and I just lost interest.

With not doing anything I began to get out of shape, I wanted to do something to get back in shape but I did not want to go back to the gym. I was talking to some of my friends about this and they said I should try Crossfit with them, at first I didn’t know what to think about it but I went to try a class anyways. After that first class I was hooked.

The day after my first class I felt soreness in my muscles that I hadn’t felt from just from lifting weights and this feeling let me know that the Crossfit program was working. To some that might sound crazy that I liked being sore, but to me that meant that I got a good workout in. Also, the workout was in a group so there are people around you to push you through the workout and try to beat their time on the workout of the day, or WOD.

I am a competitive person so this aspect of the program I really liked. So if you are anything like me and working out in a tradition gym is just not for you I would recommend that you try to find a Crossfit gym, or box as crossfitters call them, near you and go in and try a class out, who knows you might enjoy it. I have been doing crossfit for close to a year and a half now and still enjoy going to classes everyday and I can’t see myself doing any other type of workout.

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