Week Four WW

Last week I was still sick all week. I didn't  take the PT test because I was up coughing all night...super fun. I was finally feeling well enough to start exercising again yesterday. I'm so happy that I didn't lose all of that training from the week before. I'm hoping to just keep working out like crazy and then I'll will let the ROTC know I'm ready to take the PT test and batta bing batta boom. Amazing I lost 1 pound this week even with being sick and no exercise. I tried to eat somewhat healthy. I still really like the weight watchers program I feel like it gives me more options and I don't feel so deprived.

Week Three Weight Watchers

Totally didn't do an update last week. Life has been kicking my butt again lately. Well I've got a PT test on Wednesday I've been working my butt off so as long as I see an improvement I'll be ok but I want to pass and I believe I will. Weight Watchers has been working really well for me. I'm still adjusting to it though and trying to find out the points for all the different foods. This past weekend I had a terrible cold which is just what I needed ... NOT! I slept all day Saturday. I was so weak I could barely get out of bed. It was terrible. Luckily I was able to rest this weekend but I'm feeling a ton better today not 100% but I'm getting there. I only lost 1/2 pound this week. But I'm happy with it. I'm at the weight I need to be for the PT so we'll see. Not very exiting I know but once some of the stress dies down it will be great.
I've been doing PT with SGM Johnson this past week as well. Talk about kicking my butt! Such good workouts though and really gives me an idea of what my workouts should consist of to get me to where I need to be.

Some thoughts...

Found this quote on a marathon training website and I love it and it is so true.

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the 

mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give 

up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the 

mind is not tired." 

- George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

 Also I was listening to Joel Osteen this morning and he was talking about the labels we put on ourselves or the labels others put on us and how all we should care about is what God thinks of us. I usually don't get all religious or anything on my blog but I really like Joel Osteen because he's not specific to one religion he just give great talks to so many people and has some great thoughts. Anyways, he talked about how a bumble bee scientifically should not be able to fly. The way its body structure is with its wings there is no way it can fly and scientists labeled the bumble bee as "grounded". The only problem was that the bumble bee couldn't hear what the scientists said all they knew was that God told him they could fly and so they did. I love this story. A lot of times we get so caught up in what we think we can't do or what others tell us we can't when really what does God think we are capable of? Anything and everything we just have to get rid of those labels.

Wyoming and Spring FTX

We headed up to Rock Springs, WY last weekend to see Ben's Brother, sis in law and niece. Neither of us have ever been up there. We headed up Saturday morning and took Jesse's Ben's other brother in our car. Cheyenne (Ben's lil sis) drove with Ben's other brother in the Uhaul (they needed to bring some stuff up to their house) and then Angela (sis in law) drove with Alexis (niece) in their car. It was not a bad drive up there at all only about 3 hours. Once everyone was up there the boys all unloaded the stuff, and Alexis and I played in driveway. We played the hokey pokey and all sorts of fun other games. She kills me. She is so fun and happy and has extreme amounts of energy. Then we headed inside and played some more and watched some of the movie Tangled while the boys did something on the computer. Later we all played on the Xbox Kinnect doing dance competitions and sports. It was awesome! Alexis was so cute doing her little dances and we all had a little competive side come out during the sports competition. We played for quite a while but it was so fun. That night we went out to dinner at a really yummy BBQ place. Ben had some fried swordfish or something and I ordered chicken, little did I know it was the whole side of chicken. The food was so flipping delicious! Once we got home Alexis was still super hyper so Ben and I played with her for a while. She was so funny. I tried to convince her I was too tired to play and she gave me a very sad face and said "you don't want to play with me anymore"...too sad. We finally all went too bed but poor Alexis woke up really sick and her and Angela were up since about 4am. We had a yummy breakfast and Jesse finished working on the computer and we headed back home. We had woke up to snow but the roads weren't too bad starting out but we hit about 3 really bad patches of ice and snow it was a little scary. We made it home ok though and for some reason really exhausted and took a nap. Now that we know what the drive is like we hope to head up there more often. I brought my camera but didn't take pictures...Dang it!

This weekend was supposed to be the Spring FTX. Key word there supposed to be. We still sort of had it but it was modified. We show up Friday morning at the ROTC building get everything situated and head to first formation and LTC Johnson the commander of the Ute Warrior Battalion explains that he has made a decision to modify the FTX because of weather. The other two schools we were heading down with had already canceled as well. Camp Williams where we would have had it had a ton of snow and it was cold and it would be difficult because of weather to get anyone to a medical facility if anything happened. So they decided that the MSIII's and MSIV's would be required to go up to the keyhole (up by Red Butte Gardens) for some training and MSI's and MSII's it would be optional for. Ben and I decided that we wouldn't go up Friday and it worked out nice because it was Grandma Smiths birthday so we were able to celebrate with her. Saturday I chose to go up. It was snowing like crazy. I wore some warm clothes under my ACU's and then we put our wet weather gear ( material that the water just slides off and doesn't penetrate through). Hiking up to the key hole I actually got really hot and then parts of me were kinda cold and then I'd get hot. The weather got worse and worse the longer we were up there. It was way fun though. We did a patrolling lane with a raid and we had to capture an enemy. We were running all over the mountain and hiding in ditches it was so fun! (Time frame was about 4 hours) We were supposed to do 3 of those kinds of scenarios but the weather got too bad. While walking around I actually slipped and fell in like a 2 foot hole. I hurried and got up out of it but later my ankle started hurting. As we were headed back to our cars my wet weather pants were falling down so I stopped to pull them up and they made the whole platoon stop and wait for me and then had me go up front they started falling down again and MSG White said I was going to get myself killed if I didn't pull them up. Ugh. I was getting so frustrated with my stinking pants! We loaded all the equipment up and headed back to the ROTC building. I had totally forgot to eat breakfast that morning and I was starving. They had some MRE's that we could eat but they are not the greatest food and I'm really picky so I just held off. It's like cold spaghetti and stuff like that. I would eat if I was in the middle of no where and there were no other option but I knew there with other options minutes away. I know I'm crazy. Anyways, after about a 10 minute break they had us take a written land navigation test. I was scared because it's not my best subject but with some help from my friend I started to figure it out and felt a lot better about it. Basically you find certain points on a a map and then find where something is in relation to that point or find the distance between 2 points. Pretty cool actually. After that we were excused to go home. I was so exhausted. I came home and Ben made me some hot chocolate and then I took a nap and Ben took me to dinner and then we just relaxed. I'm still pretty exhausted and sore today. Both my ankles feel funny too don't know whats going on there. It was a great experience though I'm glad I went up. 

Oh geez...

So...Frustration goes around the nation. My work sent out an email saying they would pay for the Race for the Cure 5k so I went down to the gym to register and found out that they have no more slots available for the Utah Valley Half Marathon so...I go online to just register and pay for it myself...SOLD OUT! ANGER!
Now what am I supposed to do??? GRR!
However, we did put our names in for the St. George marathon so I'm praying we get in to that. It is the first weekend in October. I really really want to do. I also need to figure out a triathlon to do this year.
Also... oh ya not done yet! This morning at PT Sergeant Major took me aside and gave me a workout. Holy Moley I'm still dying from it. Pushups, situps, crunches, bench press and running with Sgt. Major adjusting the speed. Thought I was going to die but there is no way I was going to stop...No Way!
Then... I get an email addressed to me and 3 other cadets that states I will be doing PT with SGT Major starting next Wednesday (cause we have FTX this weekend) and he states "There will be another PT test administered on 20 April, it is my intention to have you ready to pass the test with flying colors."
WHOA! I'm so excited this is going to be intense and I could be passing the PT Test 2 weeks from today!!!
Ok thats it for now. Updates coming if I'm not terribly exhausted which is most likely so maybe don't expect updates.

Weight Watchers Week One

First week of weight watchers not too shabby. I really enjoy this program but I'm still getting used to it. I'm so used to counting calories and the crazy thing is with weight watchers you don't count calories they take into consideration how much fat, carbs, protein and fiber are in something. It's easy for you body to digest fat and carbs and more difficult with protein and fiber. It's based on a point system. Each food is assigned a point value. I am allowed 30 points a day and no one can have below 29 points a day. You also can use extra points that you get from exercising and you can use an extra 49 points a week if you want. I'm trying just to keep it at the 30 points and not use my extra points. What's hard though is recipes, luckily I have a cool program I can put in the recipe and amount of servings and it gives me the nutrition facts, but also there are so many things you just don't know what the nutrition facts are for them. This weekend we went to Wyoming and I just have to figure out how to somewhat eyeball things and try and figure it out. It's getting a little easier. All fruits are zero points and most vegetables are zero points so that is GREAT! 

I didn't lose any weight this week but I didn't gain which is always acceptable for me at least.  I exercised 5-6 days this week. I start my half marathon training this week as well. I don't know how this week is going to go because Friday, Saturday and Sunday we have the Spring ROTC FTX so it's going to be eating to survive but I'm sure I'll be burning plenty of calories! Also, this weekend down at Camp Williams it's supposed to be wet and cold...Lovely!