late night update.

it's 1am and i really don't want to be posting, but here i am - real quickly.

we went to workout again and i stair-stepped myself to another half hour segment. let me tell you - that machine is not easy (especially if you don't want it to be). i kill those calories like their mine to burn. jenna did the elliptical during - what a killer. what a pal. then we tried to jump-rope outside, but about 10 seconds into it, her rope completely snapped in half and some of it went flying. hilarious, but no good for the jump-roping.

later this evening i went back to the gym for some more cardio. i tried my hand at swimming, since i've never been good at it. i swam/treaded water for 20 minutes straight which was great. i would swim a lap (which kills me - don't laugh at me all you swimmers out there) then sit at the deep end, treading, for about 3-4 minutes and then another lap, then more treading. after 20 minutes, it's quite a workout. afterward my ankles were really sore since it was a different position for them to be pointed and have the water resistance against them, which is good because i need to get them strong for season. hopefully a little less injury this season.

well, off to read my Bible and then into bed. it's a late night thanks to a paper analyzing music and then a sad attempt to study for a quiz tomorrow. that will have to wait until the morning.

another semi-new year's resolution i've been working on for a little while is my sleeping habits. i want to try hard to go to bed before midnight, really 10:30 or 11 sounds ideal, so that i can get up in the morning at a reasonable time with strength and energy. once the real semester comes around i have 9am classes and i want to workout before that, so that means getting up at 7am or so each morning. no more 1am-ers or even later (God forbid) for me. good night. i'm outta here.

and i let it slide.

so since friday i guess? friday night i went to bed reading the bible and saturday i woke up and read. that felt great. since then i've been slacking until i go to bed to read. i have to start getting on that in the mornings. (which i enjoy so much more, but still have to remember for some reason.)

in recent news: the dieting is going GREAT. tracking my calorie intake is a lot better than guessing or guestimating (as my jr. high teachers would say). i've been around 1,400 - 1,800 calories everyday and still feel great. it also helps me stay aware of my sugars & sodium levels - which i seem to go over everyday, but i'm working on.

saturday's workout: half hour on the stairstepper. i did some major work that day. burned 400 calories and sweat off a few cups of goodness. shaner went with me and ran during - and since neither of us brought our ipods, we watched the strongest man competition on espn without sound in the weight room. gotta love those shows.

sunday the weight room is closed, so no workout. i don't mind. 6 out of 7 days is incredible for me.

monday (yesterday) i woke up and ran a little over 2 miles outside (it was beautifully snowing, yet really cold) for just over 20 minutes. then i went to the weight room and lifted for half an hour. after lunch, i came back to the apartment and jenna and i studied for our quiz in class. while she quizzed me i ran/jumped around in place for 10 more minutes of cardio. i'm going to count that day as a major success.

today i had to babysit in the morning, so i haven't worked out yet. as soon as jenna is done with her homework - we're out the door to get some major cardio in. :]

how is everyone else's progress?

too good to just let fly.

yesterday was too good of a day in my 2010 journey to just not mention. day 7 was memorable, and i hope i keep saying that in a week, month, few months. yesterday morning i got up and went and worked out on the stair stepper for a half hour, then came back to the room to finish up my workout using exercise tv on ondemand. then i took a shower and ate some delicious breakfast. (yogurt, clementine, cereal, and coffee - together about 200 calories)

then i took my coffee and decided to have coffee with Jesus. i mean - i have coffee with other friends, why not with my number one, right? so i read genesis 13-14 and psalm 7. then i read another chapter in becoming a woman of prayer and something hit me so hard. the chapter was about the Holy Spirit interceeding for us, but even more than that. the Father hears our prayers because of the Holy Spirit, we can't pray by ourselves. that's why romans 8:28 is so powerful and true, and completely relieving.

Romans 8:28: And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

but even more than that,the author talks about how at the beginning of each year, she asks the Spirit to lead her to a passage for that year, to open her heart to a new yearly lesson. she told stories about how each passage she was lead to was exactly what she prayed for herself to learn (humility, letting go of sinful tangles, etc.). immediately i knew that the Spirit had been working in me, i had half heard, and had not known how to respond.

after reading crazy love i was really challenged about big steps in my life that i needed to make, but i was a little hesitant because i didn't know how others would accept my changes or decisions or just the difference within me. i didn't know if people would understand why i would be so different or how i fell upon these "radical" decisions. i knew that these fears or uncertainties shouldn't stop me from answering the clal of God on my life, but i didn't know how to get around them. then last sunday, the message was set in luke 2 - the story of Christ's childhood. the speaker asked us to really ask God to point out to us the reason we were reading that particular portion of scripture that day - to see what God wanted each of us specifically to get out of it. well the first time through the passage, i almost lost it. here it is:

Luke 2:48-50, 52 "His parents didn’t know what to think. 'Son,' his mother said to him, 'why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.' 'But why did you need to search?' he asked. 'Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?' But they didn’t understand what he meant... Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people."

these verses explain perfectly the dilemma that i thought i was dealing with - people not understanding what i would be doing or my motive behind it. Christ wasn't worried about if people (his own parents even) approved of his current location or activity - he was too worried about doing his Father's work. i want to be too worried, too consumed about doing my Father's work. this is my prayer for this year. that i would be too captivated by my Daddy to worry about others' opinions of my actions or radical christianity, that i would be so wrapped up with His will that i didn't look for approval in other areas of life. i don't expect to succeed everyday, but i want to focus harder, to look straighter, and to really seek out living radically for the Kingdom.

so if you didn't get any of that - it's okay. i guess this blog is for me too... for me to look back and remember by purpose and to rely back on days that i was excited about the year when i want to quit or throw the towel in. but if you did get it - i challenge you to it. (pick up crazy love and you will not be the same... well, you actually have to read it first.)

physically yesterday was a great day too, although after writing all that and remediating on the fact that God was working in my life yesterday, my well-excersized day looks like nothing in comparison. wednesday night lori came over. her, jenna, and i worked out on exercise tv for an hour. we did a half hour of cardioke (pretty fun workout i must admit), then a leg workout (killer), and an abs video (with kendall - killer). it was really fun to workout with them - so hopefully that will be come a weekly ritual.

kelsey came over last night (shane's sister) and she came with good news: (well first of all - she brought me a self magazine - my latest craving and obsession.) there's a site sponsored by livestrong that is called: my plate. it counts your calories for you (much more effective and useful than mypyramid.gov) and gives you a calorie allowance for whatever your weight loss/maintaining goal is. for instance, currently my goal is to lose one pound per week: i put in my height and weight and currently lifestyle (active) - it tells me how many calories i can consume. then i tell it what workout i did and it gives me how many more i can have during the day. really effective tool for anyone that wants to just see how they are doing to get an idea of what the possibilities are.

this morning, kels and i went and worked out in the gym for a while. i did 15 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes of weight lifting (arms, shoulders, chest, back, legs). after being sore yesterday, i felt really good today. i'm loving that i still have a positive attitude about this whole new lifestyle - i know it's only 8 days in, but this is probably 8 days longer than i have ever lasted before.

thanks for reading and listening to my ranting. thank you for letting me know that you're trying out 2010 as well. here's a shout-out to all my fellow crazy people that think this is the year for change: ashley, danielle, michelle, tiffany (& uncle randy, i think), aunt debbie, erin, & kelsey. anyone else need support or encouragement? let me know. i love knowing there's other people going through this. for those of you who get up in the morning and just want to sleep in rather than workout - call me and i can see if i can't convince you. if you want to be that person for me - let me know. i'm going to need someone soon. :]

hello january 6th.

this morning was GREAT. currently (and i stress currently because i'm sure this feeling is temporary) i love working out. this morning i woke up at 9, went running outside for 10 minutes then biked on the spinning bike for 20 minutes. then i worked out my arms, chest, back, shoulders, and legs. it felt wonderful.

unfortunately in the 6 days of 2010, i've already developed an addiction to coffee. i thought i would be fine coming back to school, getting away from my parents' extremely nice instant coffee maker, but i was wrong. i came back to school and my roommate quri decided to buy a coffee maker this past weekend. we just had to test it out today, and let me tell you - it was fantastic. this is no good.

i haven't read my B-i-b-l-e yet today, but sooner than not shaner and i will sit down and read it.

last night before bed i was reading becoming a woman of prayer and studied parts of jeremiah and other books, concentrating on our approach to prayer. we often view prayer as our coming to God and presenting our praise and requests, but the author talked about God wanting us in His presence, inviting us into prayer with Him.

i finished the chapter with a concentration of jeremiah 33:3 "call to me and i will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." i had left my Bible open so that i could highlight the verse this morning and when i got my breakfast around and about to highlight it, i spilled my cup of milk on it. i had to un-stick all the pages, and i just feel so sad about my Bible.

i've felt so lazy all day, spending my afternoon since class watching 3 discs of friends. working out in the morning makes me feel wonderful, but sitting around all afternoon makes me feel useless and like the workout in the morning didn't work. i'm going to have to make my days more productive... wish i had more hours at work. well, in a few minutes my friend lori is coming over to do a cardio dance workout video from ondemand with my roommate jenna and i, looking forward to it! :]

day 5 - which is 1% completion of the 365 days in 2010.

this morning i needed a friend, some accountability and encouragement. i am so grateful to danielle for being here this morning. i tried to convince her we didn't need to work out since i had ran on sunday and that's not in my plan. she tried to reason with me, and after much debate we decided to just get going: running and ondemand workout.

we went 1.5 mile down to the nearby elementary school and back. i had forgotten that school was back in session, so as we rounded about the school, kindergartners were out to recess. they responded to us as if they had never seen a dog in their lives. once girl kept yelling "DOG, DOG, HEY LOOK - THERE'S A DOG, DOG!" she chased the three of us (biz, the said dog, and myself) almost off the school property. what a cook.

when we returned back from our run we started the cardio workout video on ondemand. it was really challenging - especially after a 15 minute run. 30 minute video and a 15 minute run got a well-earned 45 minutes of cardio in today. then we did some partner stretching to work on flexibility.

i'm really looking forward to biking or doing the elliptical when i get back to school in the workout room. although - the new tvs in the workout room at school are set to news channels with corresponding radio stations to tune your dial into to listen. since i don't have a walkman (which i think it has been at least 10 years since i carried around) and the ipod touch doesn't offer a fm radio dial application, those are no good. i hate reading the subtitles. hopefully i can find some more books on tape so that my workouts are still enjoyable.

we ate some delicious lunch - egg sandwich and salad. felt so good to eat well after a good workout. tonight shane and i are going out for our 2 year to olive garden, but i still have 1,000 calories to "spend" on my meal tonight - so alfredo is possible. praise the Lord. :]

after danielle left, shane and i sat down to read genesis 9-10 and psalm 5. although there were a ton of names that i had never heard of before (all the descendants of noah), i tried to give them value and pronounce them best i could rather then just skipping over. i figure that i shouldn't belittle any part of the Bible as i read it - God obviously has purpose for each word, so i'm trying to respect even the seemingly boring or easy to look over parts.

this afternoon i'm going to start reading becoming a woman of prayer, a 50-page or so book that was a mother's day present leftover from church a few years ago. this past week i cleaned out quite a few books from my collection and donated some of the christian books to church's library and the others to willard library (our local public), but i had come across this book and decided to add it to my list for the year. yesterday i also picked up mere christianity by c.s. lewis at the library, which i look forward to getting into.

tomorrow's my first day officially on the workout plan (minus the hour of tennis until practice starts back up). i will finally have access to weights in the workout room and i can use the elliptical or bike to replace my hour of tennis with a 30 minute segment. i'm eager for my roommate beth to get back on campus (she doesn't come back until the end of january) because she will be helpful accountability and workout partner, but until then it's really up to me to prove to myself how serious i am about this and how badly i want it. i'd love the encouragement and help - please offer if you have any.

she could lose a few too.

well who knew that my dog loves a good run? yesterday i decided to take her out with me and see how she did - she needs to lose a few pounds as well (if she doesn't mind me saying). she did great - also a good excuse to walk a minute in the middle of the run. again today i took her out, and i think she loves it. our runs definitely wear her out and give her something to do during the day. i'll miss running with her back at school.

another great addition to my runs is to run with a book on CD. this past weekend i had checked out one of jodi piccoult's book (vanishing acts) for the long ride to boston and ended up only starting the book. but since i had copied a few of the disks onto my ipod to start, i continued listening to the book yesterday and today as i ran. it is brilliant - and i strongly recommend it for anyone who thinks "how much longer?... am i half way?... i could just walk, no one would know" type of thoughts while running (i'm obviously guilty of this). my mind is so consumed in the story that i don't realize how long i've been running and i'm anxious to keep listening.

today's diet was good - i ate what i liked and how much of it i liked, and stayed within a reasonable 2000-ish calories. snacking was definitely a threat today because i was stuck at home most of the afternoon. this makes me look forward to being busy during the day, making my cravings limited or ignored. also, since i'm only a few days in - the dessert temptation was high tonight. after a few weeks, i will have built up enough stamina against those pesky temptations to say 'no' much easier, but tonight was not the case at all.

the advantage about being around the house was having opportunity to look for calorie-burning activities in everyday life. because shane and i put away christmas decorations and did our 4 loads of laundry, i was able to go up and down the stairs at the least 15 times. i felt strong every time. i've been trying to be conscious of doing an abdominal workout at least once during the day when i'm sitting in front of that ever so tempting and addictive television. have any ideas for other watching tv/movie workouts? feel free to share.

yesterday i heard from my sister that she's in for the journey - trying to beat the march slim down date. help encourage her by leaving her reminders to spend time exercising on her blog.

tonight i read genesis 7-8 and psalm 4 with danielle and shane. (whoo - another goal covered this week: reading with my incredible boyfriend.) speaking of biz (danielle), she would like to have a celebrity guest appearance on tonight's post, so here goes:

Hello friends.

1. I am very proud and impressed with Alyssa's commitment and progress on her New Year's resolutions... even if it has been 4 days.

2. She has helped me to keep mine... not drink pop.

3. She is also motivating me to run tomorrow. I love running, but I hate winter more -- so that means I'm going to hate running tomorrow.

4. We are doing a cardio workout on the OnDemand work out channel. We are doing a cardio boot camp with my favorite, Kendall. He's very motivating.

5. I love Biz (Alyssa).

6. I go back to school Wednesday.

7. My other New Years Resolution is to read my b-i-b-l-e for 10 minutes when i wake up in the morning. Do-able? I hope so.

8. Happy New Year :]

9. My other joke/serious if it comes true New Year's resolution is get a hot boyfriend. That loves Jesus of course.

10. Theers! :]

so day 3 is already upon me.

well, i knew i would eventually falter and fail - so why not start early and get that out of the way?

new years day and the following were busy days of traveling and excitement (no reason not to spend time with God, but a fairly good one not to exercise my brains out). just a few moments ago i caught up with my old testament reading: genesis 1-6 and psalm 1-3. it was... refreshing. the last few days as i've thought about my guilt of not spending my devoted time, i had realized that months have passed since i've sat down with my Bible for more than a few minutes at a time. i feel relieved and refocused, remembering why i decided to make this year different.

yesterday i practically read all of francis chan's crazy love, and it was incredible. so challenging, so rough, so great. i am moved. well, actually - right now i am at a stand still, because i'm not sure how God is calling me to move from reading that book. so many big ideas and key concepts that i know to be true, but am not daily acting upon is hard to consume. from reading the book yesterday, i've been able to open up my prayer life a lot more on a momentary basis - like i used to be when i was counseling at barakel. i'm seeing God speak directly to me - through the book, through the message today, through His goodness, grace, and calling upon my life. i'm ready to run - just not sure where to go.

speaking about running, that's what i'm about to do. it's a mere 21 degrees out, but sunny enough that i can't turn down the opportunity when i know i should be out there.

the dieting is going alright so far - new years day was a few hundred more calories that i wanted, but i was consciously making an effort to consider what i was eating. yesterday i started the day well, but as shane's mom says - the rule for driving across the country is that all dieting rules are out; it's too hard to find healthy choices and who wants to when they're crammed in a car all day. at first i hesitated at this approach, but when i felt the urge to snack 5 hours in, i decided that i should just live it up while i can. today has proven to be much better - about 850 calories so far, feeling good.

alright - here's the part i don't want to talk about, the facts. about a month and a half ago, i weighed 145, and today i'm at 153. i'm not proud - i'd like to blame it on christmas, but it's more about my laziness (and preparation for this diet as i knew i was giving up a lot). so my goal is 140 by the end of march. here's to that. and here's to my freeeeezing cold run that i'm heading out for.