Whatcha Eating Today VSGers? Friday, 12/21/2018

Good morning, all! Yesterday was a fun day for me - I spent it with one of my best friends and we went to her boxing conditioning class. That was hard work! Leave it to a new type of exercise to show you that your fitness schedule has deficiencies :P We spent about 5 hours together and still have a billion things we need to talk about. Never enough time!

Today I'm doing some holiday cooking, watching Bird Box on netflix, and getting my monthly massage. I also need to do a bunch of emails and calls, laundry, and finish up the packing list for our trip. It'll be a great day! Aside from the holiday prep, I'm not cooking again until we're actually on vacation.

QOTD: What do/did you want to do with your life? How/when did you figure that out? Did your plan go through changes over time?

1: protein shake
2: leftover instant pot butter chicken meatballs
3: scrambled eggs and cheese

liquid and vites: on track
exercise: not today since fitness classes are on vacation

How about you?

QOTD: I'm really curious about what other people have to say with this, since I'm still working on figuring it out.

When I was in high school, the time we expect kids to know what they want to do with the rest of their lives, I planned to major in math and comp sci and probably become a code breaker for the CIA. Holy crap. I just realized, while typing that, how screwed I'd be right now if I were 15 years into a career in the intelligence community. Dodged -that- bullet.

I went to college to pursue that goal and college didn't work out for various reasons so I dropped out. For the following 18 years I just futzed around at various things - center-based day care, home day care, bank teller, tournament organization, web management. Ultimately I wanted to focus on being an awesome homemaker and focus on my family (my partners and parents).

And then, 20 years after I was supposed to leave high school knowing what I wanted to do with my life, I actually figured it out. A friend of mine suggested I should become a personal trainer and, by the end of that day, I had gone from planning personal trainer certification to AA in Exercise and Sport Science to BS in Gerontology all with the goal of helping older people move better. I added in a major in Health Management Services since I knew that would look good on my resume and give me more options. My goal had developed into "make the aging and dying process better for all those involved." I did training to become an End of Life Doula. I've got a year left in my BS degree.

I've been thinking, off and on, about the next step education-wise. I graduate at the end of 2019 and we're planning on moving in 2020. After we move I plan to get a job "in my field," at least part time. In theory I'd start classes again in 2021 or 2022 (those seem like fake years). The area I'm moving to has a lot of great schools and the local University has a Master of Social Work that initially seemed like it might be the way to go for me. Recently, though, I've been thinking a lot about Public Health. The local University ALSO has a Master of Public Health - how fortuitous! I guess it boils down to whether I want to effect change on an individual level or a societal/community level.

So that's my story! I'm looking forward to reading all ya'all's stories!

Your life plan is amazing Gwen, you have stuck to your goals so well!

Good morning! I'm watching Bird Box tonight too! I've been waiting for this one:-) Sounds like you have a busy, yet kind of fun day planned Gwen.

I'm taking my mom to get her hair done and will run some errands while she is there. I think Emmy(my dog) hurt her foot a little on our hike yesterday so we are taking a break from any walking/hiking today. She loves to go to the salon and hang out with her Corgie friend, Thor. Then pick up something for dinner and watch Bird Box.

QOTD-In high school I was all over the place on what I wanted to do or be. My junior year we lived near the National Geographic headquarters, I though for sure I wanted to be a photographer for them and travel the world. My senior year we moved back to my hometown and the dream slipped away. My next goal for my life was to be a Forest Ranger and major in Forestry. I went off to a University with an excellent program. I lasted one year, my father became extremely ill so I went home to take care of my little brother and be there for my mom. Watching my father recover over the next 6 months put this idea in my head that I should be a nurse. I graduated from nursing school in 1988 and moved to Colorado to continue my career as an RN. I went back to school to get a B.S. in Political Science while still nursing. I was a really good nurse, but I was miserable. I thought changing careers would help. I didn't get to continue with either. By 2006 I had widespread arthritis, a progressive form of Osteoarthritis and severe cataracts by the age of 39. By this time I had already had 3 major joint surgeries and cataract removal. In 2012 I had a total hip replacement and was looking at both knees being done as well. This was the year that I became disabled. I was also at my heaviest weight, 313lbs. I lost 95lbs of the weight before and after the hip replacement. Gained 38lbs back to being 256lbs pre VSG. During this time I began working part time at our Visitor Center during the summers and on call off season. So now at the age of 52 I am still trying to figure out what I want to be:-) Edited to add that I also care for my mother who lives with me.

B-1/3 cup granola, bullet coffee

L-Fage yogurt w/fruit and pecans

S-Hot tea

D-tbd

E-none today

Have a good Friday!