Update on Day 1 and Day 2

I thought yesterday would be a lot tougher than it really was. I wrote a post yesterday morning about beginning the 24 Day Challenge. I'll admit, I didn't start off 100% on the right foot. I should have done extensive meal planning on Sunday before I started. I didn't. I should have had good lunch foods in place. I didn't. All I really did before Monday morning was look at the Daily Guide.

Well, let's talk about how that went.

I got to work around 7:30 yesterday morning. I still wasn't really hungry or anything. Shakeology does a good job of keeping me satisfied for a few hours.

I made it through my first class and into my planning period.

Around 9:40, I had a Granny Smith apple for snack.

Then, I taught another class at 10:50.

Lunch came at 12, where I ate tuna, peanut butter, and mandarin oranges. I was pretty satisfied from that, actually.

I went back upstairs with my students and taught my last two classes. 3:05 was finally here. At this point, I wanted another snack. I didn't have one...

However, I did have another Spark packet ready. I figured that I would drink that, go get Christian, and make it home within 30-40 minutes so I could snack. That's what you're supposed to do. Spark, wait 30 minutes, then snack.

Then, I called Nick.

We decided to go grocery shopping. We needed fruit and salad stuff, lean meats...etc.

We were at the store until 4:40. This means I drank my spark at 3:30 and it had been over an hour. I was sooooooooo hungry. He gave me some almonds to eat, which helped exponentially.

After we got home, we had a lot to take care of before I could cook dinner. Eventually, I ended up baking chicken breasts (which turned out to be really delicious - tender and juicy), corn, and we had a big salad. We were both satisfied, which is impressive because Nick usually isn't after just one plate of food (heck, neither am I, if we're being honest). I think having such a colorful meal helped us get full faster. All of the fiber helped! (We also took our OmegaPlex, of course.)

Christian went to bed at 8 and then it was time to workout. PiYo: Define Lower Body for 21 minutes. This is the first time I've done PiYo since my arm started hurting. It wasn't bad, but my hand did swell a little by the end. I think that, if I keep working and I go to Occupational Therapy like I'm supposed to, I'll be able to keep going.

All we had left to do was take the Herbal Cleanse pills and go to bed!


All in all, it wasn't that bad. I only had one time where I was actually hungry, and it was completely my fault.

I still had about 1300 calories yesterday, so I wasn't starving. Just much healthier choices.


Now, Day 2 and 3 were the worst ones last time. I ended up with a caffeine headache and a bad temper. This makes me a little nervous, because I'm going to meet my newest nephew - Nick's sister's baby, Jackson - this afternoon. Plus, I'm working at another job until 4:30 (tutoring at another school). Not a lot of time for that afternoon snack.

So far, I've had Spark, Catalyst, ThermoPlus, and Probiotic Restore. Then, I did an 18 minute full body yoga flow. Finished up with some oatmeal for breakfast (and that delicious Fiber drink that just makes you want to *vomit*) and I'm ready to start my day!

We are having dinner with Nick's parents tonight, but they are being accommodating and cooking foods that everyone can eat. I just love them for that!

I'll update as I continue! :)

Day 1 of the Challenge!

And we're off!!!

Today is Day 1 of 24.

Last night, Nick and I took measurements and our weight. We prepped our lunches. We put out the supplements we need. Then, with a little anxiety on my part, we went to sleep. Why in the world was I nervous? I've done this before. I was successful with this before. It's doable. I can do this.

Nick started new hours at work today. He went from working from 8 AM - 5 PM to working from 6 AM until 3 PM. This means that instead of getting up after I do, he now wakes up way before I do. The good part about this is that he wakes me up before he leaves. He's so sweet when he does it - talking me out of whatever dream I am having.

Then he says: Hey! Since you're up, you can start your morning with yoga.

Sigh. Yes, yes I can. I have no excuses.

So that's exactly what I did.

This morning, I took my Catalyst and ThermoPlus. I added in the Probiotic Restore. Then, I did a Yoga Twists class. After that, it was time for the dreaded Fiber drink. Nick described it as chugging wood chips and saw dust. That's about accurate. For breakfast, we both drank Shakeology, which is, by far, my favorite shake!

Now, it's time to get ready and conquer my work day. I have a bomb lesson plan and materials ready for my students. I'm excited.

I'll update again later tonight! :)

Advocare - Round 2 + Mini Life Update

About a year ago, I embarked on the journey that is the Advocare 24 Day Challenge. It was amazing. I lost 15 pounds in 24 days. I worked my butt off to do it. I completely changed the way I was eating. I stayed true to the supplements and let the program work for me.

Then, life happened. I had a birthday on which my boyfriend, at the time, decided not to celebrate with me. His narcissistic tendencies tried to turn my birthday into a night that I would spend moping about him, and instead, my friends made sure I had fun. I spent the next few days exhausted, bloated, and a little sick.

From there, I finally got back on the wagon and finished my first round of PiYo. This is a Beachbody program by Chalene Johnson that combines Pilates and Yoga into this perfect workout that is both strengthening and relaxing. I ended up losing a total of 20 pounds by the time the program was over. I was about 10 pounds from my goal before the kiss of death happened:

• The narcissist I was dating ghosted out, forcing me to break up with him (because, duh!)
• Summer vacation. For teachers, this means lots of down time

These two things combined = weight gain.

Honestly, I stopped caring. I could have kept going. It's all on me. I'm a highly-sensitive person, though, and I let outside influences weigh me down...quite literally.

So now, here I am, one year later. Things have changed, totally.

First of all, I'm ENGAGED! Yay! I met the love of my life about 1.5 months after that horrible relationship ended. We started dating in August. He moved in mid-December and we got engaged in February! 

Second of all, I'm almost done with graduate school! I graduate on May 13. It's a Friday the 13th too, which just so happens to be my favorite day (I always assumed that since it is considered to be "unlucky," all of the good luck is just waiting to be claimed. I'll claim it!!!).

Third, my fiance´ (oh, that's still fun to say...or write) has decided to join my health/fitness endeavor. We are going to do the Advocare 24 Day Challenge together! That's really what this post is about. I'm reintroducing you guys, and myself, to the challenge.

So, let's get into it.

Here is what the challenge looks like. Keep in mind, this is enough for two people:

Included in the challenge are the following products:

1. One box of Herbal Cleanse + Probiotics
2. One box of a Fiber drink
3. One canister of Spark (we got fruit punch and grape as our flavors)
4. 14 servings of Meal Replacement Shakes (we both got chocolate, because yum!)
5. The MNS system of your choice (we both got MNS-E for appetite control + energy)
6. One bottle of OmegaPlex

We each got a supplemental product:

1. He got Crave Check (because he gets bad cravings).
2. I got Catalyst (aka "Liposuction in a Bottle").

Because we ordered during a promotion, we also both received an additional box of Spark. We were both sent green apple. I kind of wish that they had sent two different ones, but alas. Beggars can't be choosers.

One of the most important pieces of this challenge is the Daily Guide that you are sent. It tells you what to eat for each meal, when to drink that disgusting fiber drink, and when to take each supplement throughout the whole process. It is key. It is life. We both have one!

We are starting this process on Monday, April 18th. Our last day will be Wednesday, May 11th. We are very hopeful and can't wait to change our lifestyles.

I'll update tomorrow with goals for the challenge and meal planning for the first week!

XOXO,
Andi


**Here are the links to my previous Advocare posts:

Starting the AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge
AdvoCare 24 Day Challenge - Cleanse Phase Wrap-up

You'll notice I don't have a Max Phase Wrap-up. Laziness happened ;)**

Week 5 Journal - LIB 5060

It's the last journal!!!!! Last week of class, here we go.

Tonight, we have the final presentation for the class. I'm really excited to share what my group has come up with to benefit our selected library.

More than that, I'm excited to share the results of my retake of the quiz we took at the beginning of the summer session!

My new score: 50

31-60
 

You are a culture sensitive person, and people will recognize you as one.  If your score is above 50, however, you are probably sensitive and broad-minded in some areas only.  Actually it is easy to be culturally sensitive if one does not hold very firm beliefs about anything.  Look through the questions again and note where you picked up high rather than low scores.  Were these questions in which personal comfort was directly concerned, or in which convictions or very strong ideological beliefs were touched upon?

Now, before, my score was in the 60s. I've grown a lot over the course of this class, I think. I feel like the presentations have really opened up my mind to a lot. I don't know if my mind has been changed or anything like that, but I do know that I'm much more sure of what I believe, if that makes sense. I know that I'm still very anti-censorship, but I understand why some people think it's ok. I'm not ok with dating or marrying someone of a different race, but it makes some people happy, so good for them. I'm a religious person, but I get that some people are not, and that doesn't make them bad people. It's just made me more open minded, I think. I also believe that librarians have to be open minded because they are going to serve people from all sorts of cultural backgrounds, and it's unfair to not be as helpful just because you don't agree with someone's personal choices/history.

What a great thing to have realized! :)

As far as our group goes, I hate to grade each person in my group. I'm never a fan of doing this (who is?)

Audra was absolutely phenomenal. She took charge of the group and helped everyone stay on track and organized. She also worked really hard on putting all of our ideas into words on the papers and helped us stick to deadlines. I love working with her in class, because her paper writing is very similar to mine, so we usually do well together. Audra truly deserves an A in this class. She's a great person to work with.

Rebecca is just a great person. She kept things lighthearted and was definitely a great group member. She and Tiffiny made sure we had a great understanding of the Mooresville library, since they lived close to it, and she always did her part with the research of everything.

Tiffiny worked so hard on our BlendSpaces for the presentation. She is the technological one of the group. She would get the BlendSpace going, add pictures, and share it with all of us so that she could really contribute to the group. She isn't as much of a paper writer, so she was very excited to be able to contribute in this way (and I was happy that I had someone in my group who truly enjoyed creating presentations, because this is not my strong suit).

Rachel always did everything that was asked of her. She helped Tiffiny with the BlendSpace and did a great job during the presentations. She always knew exactly what she was supposed to present, and she did a great job of encouraging the rest of us while we presented.

My job was a combination of it all. I always helped and contributed with research by adding my thoughts and findings onto a Google Doc. Then, I would help edit down the papers into something smoother that we could turn in. I checked grammar and turned things into more academic writing (that's my specialty - editing!). During the presentations, I thought I did a decent job conveying information to the class.

Anyway, thank you so much for a great summer semester! I will see you in class tonight, Dr. B! Thanks for everything!

Week 4 Journal - LIB 5060

This week, we were supposed to go and check out everyone's space that was created for Part 3 of the Culture Project.

My group decided to create a very simple, streamlined space where everything was labeled in English and Spanish. We created posters/flyers in Spanish and English, labeled each section, and used selection criteria that allowed us to choose titles that would be appealing to Hispanic/Latino patrons, whether that meant the book/media was about current issues, written by a Hispanic author, etc.

One of the spaces that I really liked was the LGBTQ library space. I think this is a really hard group to serve, especially without getting any flack from outside community groups. I think a neat way to make sure you include books/resources for this group is to have them cross-referenced as LGBTQ but also as whatever else they are: adult fiction, young adult, and children's. That is exactly what this group did. I especially liked the videos section. I think videos are really helpful for this group, in particular.

I liked the space created for Seniors, but I still feel like it was a bit stereotypical of your traditional elderly person. It was very creative, with sections on travel, retirement flyers, grandchildren, etc. But what about those elderly patrons who don't care about any of that? What about elderly patrons who are still working, have no grandchildren, and are looking to the library for other resources? Shouldn't there be a fiction section that highlights literature about people their age? I know that, personally, I identify more with literature about people my age....so there have to be seniors that feel the same way, right?

The homeless space was one of my favorites, if not my absolute favorite. I loved the wall with mirrors and the poetry hung on the wall. I liked that they included recreational reading as well as resources for the homeless AND books about homelessness. That was really awesome. Include a little bit of everything because these people are not just homeless; they're also real people. I loved the posters. It just made this feel like a really welcoming space. Bravo.

I wanted so much more from the teen space. I loved the idea of including books written by teens. I think that was really neat. I think a lot of research went into creating this space, but I was missing the technology that I think a library needs to include to really reach teenagers these days. E-books would be great to incorporate here. Something about Overdrive access? I don't know. I just felt like it was lacking.

As I see these other libraries, I'm thinking of what else I could've added in our library. I feel like everyone kind of went with just the stereotypes of what they thought each culture would like, and they didn't think of these people as more than their culture. I know the point of the project was to really think about how to serve the culture, but can't you get so caught up in their culture that you miss who they are as a person? It makes me think back to the personal cultural narrative. There were so many things that make me who I am. I don't think trying to serve one aspect of my culture would be beneficial for me. I don't know (just spitballing ideas).

Week 3 Journal - LIB 5060

Another week of presentations are done!

This week, we had to present on the best practices for our culture in the library. My group presented based on research that we found that would make the Mooresville (or any) library better serve the Hispanic/Latino population. Overall, I think we could sum it up by saying we need to incorporate more bilingual signs, bilingual books, books that are written by Hispanic authors, and we need to reach out into the community to partner up with a liaison from their culture. Simply advocating for their culture will do wonders!

Next week, we have to design a space that shows how we would support our cultural group. I'm really excited to build out a library. I love projects like this. They let us get creative and design our own libraries the way that we would want them!

We also were supposed to read the article "The Culture of Comfort" by Annette de Faveri. This was quite eye opening, honestly. The whole article talked about how librarians themselves are a barrier in the library. And then, the last paragraph was just fantastic:

"We need to make ourselves and our institutions inclusive and accessible. We need to create policies, programs and services that are committed to equitable communities. To do this we must shed our culture of comfort. We need to emphasize ideas over tasks, and processes over solutions. We need to insist that experiences and effects are as significant a measure of our success as counting heads at a library program. Collectively we can debunk the myth that the current definition of the library and librarian is complete and needs only to be reproduced to be successful. This is not a "them or us," or an "old versus new" split in our profession. It is simply the recognition that if we are indeed society's most egalitarian institution we must become egalitarian." 


Yes. All of this. This is perfect. Not often do I read an article where I passionately agree with something that someone else has said. This article, though, summed up exactly how I feel about the library. I love the ideas of putting ideas above the tasks themselves. That librarians have the power to make the library truly equal for everyone. This was just perfect.

Week 2 Journal - LIB 5060

This week, in class, we had to present on the specific culture that we chose for our project. My group has chosen to focus on the library in Mooresville, NC. We are specifically focusing on the Hispanic/Latino population because they are greatly underserved in this area.

We've done some research and we found out that this group is 16% of the area's population, which correlates with the national population of Hispanics and Latinos. Even though they are a good chunk of the population, they are still not being served like they should. This is partially due to lack of awareness about how to actually serve their community and partially due to a lack of caring, I believe. I think libraries forget, sometimes, that their job is to serve the community - including minority cultures.

In class, after presentations, I realized that there are other populations out there that are being underserved. A group presented on the elderly and we had to immediately have a conversation about stereotyping. It's not something I think about in relation to the elderly, but after the conversation we had, it's absolutely true. We tend to just assume that the elderly population in an area are helpless. That they don't know how to use technology and they won't know how to do anything for themselves. This just isn't true. The elderly just aren't a population that I have ever really thought about in any other way. That's interesting though, because my dad is officially a Senior Citizen. He's one of the most technologically inclined people I know. That presentation really opened my eyes to a lot of stereotyping.

Another interesting presentation was the one on teenagers. Before this presentation, I wouldn't have considered teenagers to be an underserved population anywhere. Now, I could see how they would be underserved in any public library. They have one small section in my personal public library, and past that, they don't have anything. They need more access to technology. They just don't get what they need in the traditional public library setting.

I can't wait to keep going with these presentations and learn more about each population. This has already opened my eyes up so much, and it's just the first week!