Day 1 on the new plan

So after day 1, I'm already feeling more energetic.

I didn't even have my diet worked out completely, but the 5 meals throughout the day kept my energy up enough to get in a good work out after work, and go buy some good food for the rest of the week. I had so much energy after work that I wanted to go out for a bike ride when I got home. Decided that was a bad idea, since I just went 2 miles in 10 minutes on a stationary bike.

Workout consisted of what has been my normal routine for a few months:

1. Walk (Yes, walk. My hamstring won't let me run much until it gets used to walking long distance)
1. I usually do a mile. Today I ran the last 1/8th of a mile. The hamstring was definitely feeling it when I started the run, but it wasn't too bad
2. The "Hand Bike"
1. No idea what this thing is really called, but it's like pedaling a bike... with your arms. I did it for my physical therapy on my shoulder. Today I did level 3.5 for 6 minutes. Last time I did level 3 for 6 minutes. When I started my physical therapy I was doing level 1 for 6 minutes. (I've gone as far up as level 6, but I can't do that for too long.)
3. Bike
1. I usually do 10-15 minutes. Today I did 10, and went exactly 2 miles in the 10 minutes.

I haven't been able to get to the gym consistently over the past few months, but when I was there I did this routine. I do this workout for a few reasons:

1. My main goal is to lose weight (or more so, lose the fat. The number on the scale doesn't matter much.) As such, a mostly cardio workout will help lose the weight.
2. I still need to work on my shoulder, or else it "relapses". The hand bike does both the shoulder AND the cardio, and I still do shoulder exercises at home with the resistance bands.
3. It's short and manageable. I've been out of the game for too long, so a strenuous routine would not work right now. As I get back into shape a bit more, I'll add more to this routine, including some actual strength training. And obviously I'll add more onto the walk/run and bike as I am able to.

After the gym I picked up everything I said earlier... some apples, bananas, mandarin oranges (in the little cups, so that I can take them for lunch), grapes, and I saw peaches in the little cups as well, so I got some of those too. Oh, and I was going to get some nuts - cashews or peanuts or something - and I forgot. Guess I need to pick them up tomorrow before work. The nuts will help provide protein throughout the day, both at work and at home.

I was going to go to Walmart on my way home from work, but then I thought... who the hell goes to Walmart for fruit? Not me! So I went to Wegmans instead. Maybe slightly more expensive, but it'll last longer than the crap they sell at Walmart, and all the stuff that I got fresh was also organic. I'm not a huge "everything needs to be organic" kinda guy, but if their fresh fruit is organic, I'll take it.

My new eating plan

I've often heard, as many of you also probably have, that eating 5 small meals a day is more healthy than eating 3 big meals per day.

With that in mind, and the fact that my work schedule is forcing me into some new habits, I've come up with a new eating plan.

I usually eat breakfast every morning somewhere around 7am. That's about the time I used to get up for work, so that's when I'm used to eating. I've been trying to push it back a bit, so that I'm not so hungry at lunch, so that's probably going to be close to the 8-9 area now. This morning I had some cereal for breakfast. usually it'll be either cereal or eggs, both with optional toast. I've gotta pick up some fruit to go with that too. (Bananas, apples, oranges... all good breakfast fruits)

Then, I'm finding that soon after getting to work (an hour or 2 in, roughly 12:00 or so) I'm starting to get hungry. So I need a small snack. Today I brought some of my mom's left over tuna salad that we had with dinner last night. Healthy, not too heavy, and a good time for a snack (given my schedule.) That will likely be an apple or something most days. Just something small to hold me until lunch.

Then I head to lunch around 2:00. Today, I had some more left overs from moms... a couple pieces of BBQ chicken, and 2 small salt potatoes. Not too big, but not too small either. I want to try to cook something for myself before work, so that I can have something healthy and not have too much work to do come lunch time.

Around 6 (when most other people are leaving my office) I have time for another snack. Tonight I brought a can of Chunky soup. I know for most people that's more like a meal, but it's not a full meal for me unless I have something with it. Plus, it'll give me energy to go work out after work. 

So basically, this is actually going to be more like my dinner. I'd like this to be something I've pre-prepared as well, and include some more of that fruit with it, balancing out the meal a bit.

Leave work at 7:30, gym probably 8-9 or so, that means I'm eating late, which I know is not good. But this time, something small and full of protein - since I just got out of the gym. Probably a couple PB&J sandwiches and a couple glasses of milk. Probably put some protein supplement into a glass of milk, and some more fruit. (My mom often has grapes sitting around, and I find myself constantly snacking on those when I'm at her house, so I'll probably get some grapes too.)

I've also found myself eating less beef and more chicken and turkey. So most of the meals will probably be chicken based, or I also occasionally have sausage. Either way, I've been kinda light on the red meat lately, and I kinda want to keep it that way. Not that I don't like it (I do enjoy a good hamburger or steak occasionally) I just LOVE chicken, and there's so much you can do with chicken.

So this is the plan I'm going to make for myself, and I'm going to try to stick with it as much as possible. I really want to start into a healthier life-style, and I think I'm in the right mindset right now to make it work. Tonight will be my first day back to the gym in a while, then I'm going to head to the store and pick up that fruit I was talking about. (I'm really craving some mandarin oranges right now...)

New Job and Moving

Job

As you may know, if you follow me on any type of social media, I started a new job on Wednesday.

I got laid off from my previous job on March 7th, and started the new job April 24th. Not too bad, if you ask me. Especially since I basically didn't lose any money. I received 2 weeks of severance pay and all of my unused vacation from my old job, which added up to about 6 weeks total.

I started the new job this week, which is pretty cool.  It's a desktop support position, just like most of my previous jobs, so I will be mostly dealing with internal issues. The hours are a bit different than I'm used to, but it's not bad. 10:30am-7:30pm, with an hour lunch (usually around 2:00 or so.) Not nearly as bad as the 8pm-6:30am I was doing at the hospital, but different enough that it's throwing off my daily routine a bit. I'm sure I'll get used to that though.
The biggest thing right now is that I need to find time to go to the gym, which I generally like to do after work, but I'm so tired after work that I don't have any energy to go to the gym. Maybe I need to bring a healthy snack with me that I can eat an hour or so before I leave, to give me an energy boost.

Thursday I talked to my bosses about my epilepsy, and what to do if I have a seizure. They're going to pass the information on to a few other people who they feel should know. I gave them a copy of my "seizure first-aid" write-up, which they are going to forward to the people who need to know. (That document is available here if you want a copy of it.) It's just information that I copied and pasted directly from the web, formatted to fit on a single page, but it's information that the people that I work with closely should know.

My benefits start back up on the first, which is awesome. That means that I don't have go into debt to get my meds when I need a refill, and I don't need to worry as much if I need to see the doctor or dentist. I still need to setup my HSA though, and I need to wait 3 months before I can get into their 401k.


Moving

Now that I have a new job, I need to look for a new apartment. I need to be out of my current place by June 1st. (We put in the non-renewal notice the day that I got laid off... just my luck, right?) I now have proof of income, which is required to get a place, I just need to find a place that is affordable and available.


I kinda want to live by myself for a while. I've actually never lived alone before, I've always either lived with family or a roommate(s). I know it'll probably be a bit boring living alone but I want to try it out for a while, mostly just because I've never done it.

I'll probably end up getting a 2-bedroom, wherever I go, and put my weight bench and stereo in the second bedroom, along with some other random stuff that's currently in my bedroom that doesn't need to be there. (My coin collection, a ton of Metallica swag, random computer parts, etc.) I basically want to turn the extra room into my "man cave". I'll probably put a table or something in there as an assembly/disassembly station for computers.

I'll probably only be there a year or two, then I want to look into getting a town house. I was planning on getting a town house this year, but when I got laid off those plans changed. Now I'm gunna need to be in an apartment for at least another year, which is not the end of the world.


For those who are in the Rochester area, I'm looking to move out toward Brighton/Henrietta area. Right now I'm looking at the apartments across from MCC as my first choice, but they're a bit more expensive than I want to pay. Also, I know it's hard to find but, I want a place that I can have laundry in the unit. So far, all of the place that I have looked have some type of communal laundry room, where I have to pay per load. I could deal with that if necessary, but I'd rather not.


Conclusion

So that's about it for now. Life is a bit hectic right now, but things will calm down and return to normal soon. Right now I'm just enjoying the ride, and looking forward to the spring/summer weather :-)


TL;DR

Got a new job, looking for a new apartment, enjoying life.

New Personal Blog!

I just moved all of my more personal posts (not related to my app development) to a new blog... this one!
Any blog post prior to this one was originally part of my development blog.

From now on all new posts that do not have anything to do with my app development, or other 1515 Studios related business, will be posted here. Some posts may appear in both places depending on the content.

This blog will mostly be dedicated to my fight for epilepsy awareness, and the latest adventures with my personal encounters with epilepsy. But will also contain things like what I'm doing for work and fun outside of my development, and whatever else happens in my life that I think people will find interesting.

I have not done any work on designing the look of the blog yet, so bear with me for a while. It has been a while since I set up my other blog, so I need to fumble through the setup process again.