I haven't written in a bit

I haven't written in this blog for a couple of days due to focusing on my running blog. If you read that one, I haven't written a bunch either. Sorry to say that this one will be short as I have to take my mother in law to the doctor's.

I'll be back.....

Rice cakes and addiction

Hello, my name is Shauna and I am a rice cake addict.

I like the lightly salted ones and can go through an entire container, which contains 14, in one sitting.

I think the reason I hanker for them is that I drink a substantial amount of water. So much so that I got psychogenic water intoxication about 8 months ago. Normally this is diagnosed only in schizophrenic people. Lucky me! =O( No, I am not schizophrenic, I just drank a lot of water which depleted my sodium to a dangerous level. It is probably happening again since I have been a stay-at-home worker and also unemployed and have nothing better to do than drink copious amounts of water and coffee. This leads me to crave sodium and so I eat the rice cakes. At least I am getting fiber!

I told my doctor and he didn't think anything was wrong with it. I was telling the checker in the store and she told me she does the same thing.

I should start a rice cake anonymous club!!

I moved my running quest to the SeekerMommy running blog

I decided to start a separate blog for my running.

Day 2

Today I walked for 30:02 minutes.

14:30 minutes @ 3 mph
10:30 minutes @ 3.5 mph
4:00 minutes @ 3 mph
1:00 minute @ 2.5 - 1.5 mph

I really wanted to run but like I said before it is not recommended at first for beginners like me. I was even debating about whether or not I should increase the speed up to 3.5 mph but I was getting bored and actually walk faster than 3.0 mph so it felt good.

Tomorrow, I am going to try to run for longer because I think I misunderstood how long to run so I will try 10 minutes walking and 3:30 - 5:00 running. We shall see!

I did barely get any sleep last night. I fell asleep at 2:00 am - 2:01 am and then was up until 4:30 and woke up at 6:30. I did finally doze off around 8:00 ish. Thank goodness the family likes to sleep in on the weekend!

This is why I started earlier today. My goal is to eventually do this every morning before my son goes to school and outside with him.

Day One in my quest to train for the 5 mile run on August 8, 2009

Okey Dokey! I did it!!

I walked/jogged for 30:01 minutes. Here is the breakdown:

10 minutes @ 3 mph
1 minute @ 5 mph
9 minutes @ 3 mph
1 minute @ 5 mph
8 1/2 minutes @ 3 mph
30 seconds @ 1.5 - 1.0 to cool down

I felt good and my heart rate did not go over 161 which is perfect. I think the ratio is 210 - age (41) = rate.

I had a pivotal moment last night which spurred (word ?) me into action. I have been overweight for over a year. But last night I was sitting next to my son and he pat my stomach and it jiggled. Like jello. Not good! I remember reading in Cosmo a long time ago that a characteristic of a Libra is a softly rounded belly. Nothing about jello...

When I did the wedding on the 9th, I grabbed a flyer (mentioned before, I believe) for a 5 mile run. I asked my son if he wanted to give it a go with me. He said yes so this week I went to Big 5 and bought him a pair of running shoes (I already have a pair) socks, shorts and a shirt all made out of the wicking away material for both of us.

I am proud of myself and it went faster than it has before. 30 minutes can take forever sometimes!! It went faster probably because the girls were entertaining me (they are my nieces and they live with me) and my son put on some dance music for me. He is going to exercise later tonight.

I will walk again tomorrow but walk/run on Monday. I have been reading that you should not run for 2 days in a row when you first start. Maybe I will try to jog for 2 minutes. or at least 1 1/2 minutes on Monday.

Searching for SeekerMommy on Google

Oh my goodness! I decided to do a search for my name, SeekerMommy, which I have been using since around 2000 and someone is using it but with a space between Seeker and Mommy. Don't search for it. Apparently this person is into ummm, errrr, ummm, sexual stuff....sigh....and ick! There is also another person using SeekerMom but seems to be a bit more innocent as I only found links in Catholic sites.

Golly Gee Wilickers! I am not going to change my name but I certainly hope that when people are doing a search know that it is not me on those sites!! Prospective employers search social networking sites these days. My question to the one using my name is....do you really want to be defined as that????

I am also an Officiant so I am also known as Celebrations by Shauna which when I did a search just now shows nothing. I wish it would have linked to my WeddingWire vendor page! I need to get onto the site and figure out how to send a quote to the prospective brides and grooms who ask for more info for me. I, so far, have done one wedding from there. Great couple and alot of fun!

My son is my wedding photographer and he is very good at it. We don't charge for that as it is a hobby for him. He uses a Sony camera which is fabulous but it is pink so he didn't want to use it at first!!

I have done 11 weddings. My start happened when my brother was getting married. I had watched some show on how to do weddings on the cheap and this one person went onto the Universal Life Church website and became ordained. I offered to do it and they said yes. It was wonderful and I was so honored to do it!

I take great pride doing the ceremonies. I create a ceremony book which I tailor to the wedding colors and perform the ceremony from there and then give it to the bride and groom after the ceremony. I generally use the 4 x 6 photo albums as they come in great colors but have been recently finding full page albums which reduces that pages that I have to use in the book giving them more pages to put photos.

I hate being sick!

I live in a house with 4 other people. 3 are students and 1 is a bus driver for Transit so whatever is going around we get and pass onto each other, over and over and over...sigh...my husband ended up on antibiotics and I managed to keep my cold abated a bit with some Comtrex Day and Night. Again, I hate being sick!

I received two Victoria's Secrets catalogs in the mail. I am thinking of ordering a bathing suit so I can use it as a visual aide in achieving my weight loss/fitness goal. I am also going to train for a 5 mile run with my son, so I should lose a bit, right? I also found a great new cooking show on Lifetime called Cook Yourself Thin and am going to order the books from both series. It originated in the UK a few years ago and I love it! I was thrilled to see Candice on a show as I loved her on Top Chef. I think she got a bad rap and Stephen was horrible to her. Look who has a show now! You go, girl!!

Regarding my weight, I managed to gain 30 lbs in a little over a year. Lack of exercise and not good eating habits probably contributed a bit, but I just found out from my doctor that the pills I take to help me sleep are actually a major contributor to my weight gain. So, I have to make a decision, getting sleep or being thin.....I better start finding something else to take! I have heard and read that being in shape helps you have more energy and you do end up sleeping better. We shall see!

I have a Twitter account using the same name and I am still undecided about it. I am following Joy Behar, Joan Rivers, the Sneaky Chef, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Rachel Maddow, Kathy Griffin and one other. I suppose it would be more exciting if I had people following me as well!

The latest travel book I am reading is Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Very good book! I shall write more about it when I am finished.

Well, this latest bit of ramblings is over for now!