On Pregnancy and the World's Greatest Husband/Father

First, I'm pregnant!

I wanted to wait until we got back from Austria to share this news.  I really, really did.  I had it all planned out and everything: Matthew and I were going to share an album entitled "Baby's First European Vacation" with pictures of me and my bump (that will have hopefully arrived by then!) to break the news to the Facebook world.  And then, after running to the store deli to get dinner tonight (Matt's working late for release and I didn't feel like cooking), I saw my half of the dinner he cooked last night packed away and waiting for me.  He didn't mention he'd made it or I would have saved myself a trip to the store.  In fact, as I was sitting here thinking about it, he hasn't mentioned a lot of things he's done lately.  Like, an embarrassingly large amount of things.  Various chores and housework that he has done faithfully and (almost entirely) without complaint by himself that I have been too nauseated or tired to help him do.

My first trimester is almost over (praise the Lord!!!) but while I was in the thick of it, most nights after work all I had the energy to do was crawl into bed almost as soon as I got home and hope that maybe, just maybe, I would feel better tomorrow.  I lost 12 pounds, mostly because I spent more time than I care to think about sitting on the bathroom floor wishing I would fall asleep and not wake up until I had a cute, snuggly baby in my arms.  And during all of this, Matthew was there with a glass of water, a hug, a tissue, whatever food I felt like I might be able to eat that day, or anything else that I could even think I needed.  He hasn't uttered a single complaint about my total lack of desire to even think about eating dinner with him (no desire to eat) nor about my requesting that we push clearing out what will be the nursery or some necessary yard-work until the totally unknown date when I actually feel like myself again.  He has been my rock through what has been a rather trying period for me.

If there was any doubt that he would be the world's greatest, most amazing father (there wasn't), it has all been blown away by the things that he has done these last 13 weeks.  He has been completely selfless in every way.  I'm definitely not always the easiest person in the world to live with, and I've probably been about 100 times worse as of late and still Matthew has done everything in his power to make sure that his cranky, tired, frustrated bride was a little (or a lot) less of all of those things.

Now that I've gotten my nomination for Husband/Father of the Year out of the way, here's the fun stuff:

• Our due date is January 25th
• We aren't going to find out the sex
• We affectionately call the baby Gummy Bear (because that's what babies look like in ultrasounds when you're not very far along)
• My midwife tells me that Baby is definitely getting his or her exercise in.  (Apparently you can hear movement on a fetal doppler? Amazing stuff!)
• Pregnancy brain is definitely a real thing.  Just FYI.

I can't think of anything else, so I'll just end this here for now.

Changes

This past week, I made a pretty big change in switching jobs.  I am now officially employed by Gallup and it's basically the greatest job ever.  Every single person I've spoken to has greeted me with an enthusiastic and sincere, "Welcome to Gallup!" Everyone has been overwhelmingly kind, inclusive, and welcoming.  People are excited to get to know me and work with me.  A coworker told both Matthew and me that he is really excited to work with me and thinks getting to know me will be really fun.  It's been an overwhelmingly positive experience when my previous job was not always that.

I'm especially excited because on my third day, last Friday, I was invited by a few guys in the NOC (network operations center - my home base) to join their team in a fitness program called 'In the Zone'.  This week, there is a fitness relay that involves each team member doing a particular exercise and then "handing off the baton" to the next person when they're done.  Yesterday I had to walk/run 2 miles for relay #1 and today was to walk/run 3 miles for relay #2.  We haven't gotten to relay #3 yet because the poor anchor of #2 has to do 50 pull ups before we can finish.  Regardless, whenever we do move on to #3, I'm demanding something that doesn't involve my legs.  The walk between my desk and the NOC is a pretty decent trek and I'm averaging walking it 10 or so times a day.  My legs are ready to murder me.

The best part of the fitness thing though, is that I am completely accountable to my group.  If I don't do my part, they can't do theirs.  I've struggled with not really having anyone to be accountable to, so having these guys is awesome.  Plus, there are trainers at Gallup who come up with a fitness and nutrition plan for you as a benefit of employment.  Even better, they are known to really hold you accountable by sending emails (or talking to you in person) as gentle reminders of your goals and plans if they see you, for example, eating something you shouldn't.  Physical Wellbeing is one of the five focus areas of overall Wellbeing and Gallup goes out of their way to make sure you have ways to improve or maintain it.

Quite possibly even more exciting, the change I realized tonight that I've fully made: I have officially moved out of plus sized/women's sized clothing! Depending on where I shop, my size is far from consistent but I have even managed to fit comfortably into a few designer brands.  I skipped weighing myself last weekend after a week when I failed rather miserably at my goals of not up going out to eat, etc., but I have definitely made progress!  I have some shirts I got last summer that were a little snug when I got them.  They got a little tighter over the course of last year, but they've become comfortable enough that I actually wore one to work today.  I'm very excited to keep up with the exercise and have people to continue to hold me accountable so that hopefully I can drop even more weight or a few more sizes before the trip to Austria.

Overall, things are going just peachy for me.  I'm looking forward to the future and seeing where things go from here!

"I know this is a silly question before I ask it, but can you Americans speak any other language besides English?"

The title is a quote from Bridget Von Hammersmark in the movie Inglourious Basterds.  I've watched it a couple of times recently because it helps to hear German spoken by natives since there aren't many opportunities like that here.  This quote struck a chord with me because it's so true.  In the movie, basically every single European character (and the actor) speaks at least two languages fluently but the only attempt in the movie the Americans make at speaking a second language is laughable at best.  The saddest part is that it is a completely accurate depiction of most Americans and it's depressing.

When I started thinking about writing this post, I realized that a lot of the time, I feel like I was deprived of so many cultural opportunities because I was born in America.  I understand that many Americans think that America is THE GREATEST THING EVER IN THE HISTORY OF ALL TIME EVER, but the rest of the world doesn't necessarily agree.

Most people I know didn't start learning a second language until middle school at the earliest.  The best chance you have of learning a new language is when you're still very young.  I guess this isn't entirely shocking when we're led to believe that since everyone else can speak English, there's really no need to learn a second language; and quite frankly, there's really not much of a use for it when you would have to travel more than one or two or three thousand miles in any direction to get somewhere where you can actually use the language you're learning.

Since I started attempting to learn German, I picked up a lot pretty quickly.  I can write well and read well, even though I still have a long way to go.  I can't, however, speak well or comprehend spoken German well which is why I've been watching the movies with German as the spoken language and listening to the Harry Potter books in German.  Even with all of that, the opportunities I have to interact with people in the German language are limited mostly to my short and infrequent trips overseas, occasionally Skyping with a native speaker, and talking to my older sister.  It's so frustrating to know that in order to really be able to become fluent in the language, I need to use the language on a daily basis.  In order for that to happen, I need to live in Europe.  In order to move to Europe, both Matt and I need to speak fluent enough German to get jobs to support ourselves.  Either that, or we can win the lottery.  Honestly, I'm not sure which one is more (or less) likely to happen.  It's why I get so frustrated sometimes.

I'm not trying to minimize the things that I have in America that I am so grateful for - my husband, the rest of my family, Husker football (it had to be said), etc. - and I know that the grass isn't always greener, but in this instance I am absolutely 100% sure that it is.  The language-learning opportunities in Europe don't exist in America and they can't.

Why I'm Taking it Slow With My Scale

Since I committed myself last week to three big changes (no going out to eat / only drinking water / minimizing sweets) I've also decided to try to minimize the number of times I weigh myself.  I was weighing myself more or less every day and it clearly wasn't helping.  I'd either get excited by my weight or depressed by it, and neither was a very big motivator for exercise.  This past week, I've managed to avoid the scale, but gave in today.  For the first time since I've started this blog, I think that I really, truly realized that even though I have a goal weight that I would love to reach, my weight isn't what this is about.

It's a little difficult to explain, because this all began out of a desire to look better.  I wanted to do it healthily, but more than anything I really just wanted to be skinny and I wanted to be that number on the scale.  I still want to lose the weight and I still want to look better than I ever have, don't get me wrong.  However, more than that I want to be healthy.  I want to be physically fit with muscle definition and an awesome cardiovascular system.  I don't want to be at risk for diabetes or other conditions that come with obesity or being overweight.  I want to know exactly what I'm putting into my body (which is why cooking at home and not eating out, save for special, occasions is huge).  Realizing that the scale isn't the be-all end-all and my weight is only a tiny piece of the puzzle makes me able to move on with the process (and hopefully be more successful with it!).

When I weighed myself this morning, after having an internal debate with myself and a discussion with Matthew about whether I should, I was really surprised to find that even though the number on the scale wasn't necessarily as low as I wanted it to be, I didn't really care.  I just kind of moved on because I know I've eaten more healthily this week than I have in a long, long while and I've been better at the gym too.  It turns out that I was right not to care one way or the other because some pants that have been a little snug lately are the most comfortable I remember them being since I bought them.  There are several different ways to measure progress and I think I've finally learned to accept that obsessively measuring my weight is not a productive one. 

There are many reasons why, including:

• Body weight fluctuates during the day and over the course of several days.  Even when you're losing weight, your weight will increase occasionally.
• Doing strength training can cause your weight to remain stagnant or increase even while your body fat percentage is decreasing.
• Seeing a higher number than you expected can cause you to lose hope or motivation.
• Seeing a lower number than expected can cause you to become complacent.
• Weighing yourself daily can cause you to become obsessed with your weight instead of becoming healthier.

The new system for weighing myself is once weekly.  A lot of people recommend once monthly, but I don't think I can handle waiting that long.  I want to measure my progress on a weekly basis, so that's what I'll do.  I'm going to set a time of day and weigh myself at that time every Saturday.  I'll also take a picture of myself so I can track my progress that way.  A lot of people have recommended taking body measurements, but I can't seem to get consistent measurements so I'm holding off on that for now.

I'm finally really, truly motivated to give this my all for all the right reasons and I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me!

Back to Basics

I've been struggling majorly to keep up with the goals set forth in this blog.  I have not been nearly as successful as I would like with both my German and my weight loss.  I've lost weight and gained muscle since it started, and I've definitely improved my German, but I haven't achieved the goals I've been trying to attain yet and it's been almost a full 18 months since I began this project.  As such, I'm going to start all over with a different approach.

There are a few changes I've been able to make and stick with since I started this blog and the biggest one is giving up soda.  Since I've been successful there, I'm instituting a few more similar changes for the next year.  They are:

• Giving up any liquid that isn't water (or tea I brew myself, if I'm in dire need of caffeine)
• Giving up going out to eat
• Seriously limiting my sweets intake

I'm also going to do the following:

• Attend church regularly and become actively involved in our parish
• Start operating a cupcakery out of my home
• Study the German language.  Really study it.

Those are quite the list of changes.  Let me explain how I got to this point.  The biggest reason is that I'm content in my life, but not satisfied where I'm at with my goals, as I already said.  I also feel entirely too complacent.  I felt like I needed to institute some changes and really do what I'm passionate about, so here I am.

Because the weight loss has been relatively unsuccessful, the changes I'm instituting there are pretty big ones that should be enough to shock my body into dropping past the rut I've been stuck in and actually making some real progress.  There are some exceptions to the rules, but there aren't many.  I will, for special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, vacations) go out to eat or drink things besides water.  On a day-to-day basis, however, the rules stand.  As far as my sweets intake, I'll allow myself one day per two weeks to indulge a little.  It may be a cupcake or a few girl scout cookies, but it'll only be one serving.

As far as the other lifestyle changes, Matthew and I have found (as have many others) that there is definitely something to be said for attending church.  Truly accepting God into our lives has allowed us to feel more at peace than we ever have.  I love having a community of people who share my beliefs and who are passionate about the same things I am.  Matt's already joined the Knights of Columbus and I am looking forward to joining the Social Justice club at Pius, as well as the women's group.  I'm also really looking forward to using my talents baking by providing cupcakes or other baked goods as necessary for parish functions!

On that note, since baking is definitely a natural, God-given talent, I've decided to use it to my advantage (and honor Him in the process)!  Even though I'm limiting my sweets intake, I still love to bake more than a lot of other things, and operating a cupcakery will allow me to do something I love.  The best part is that I will donate 5% of the total order price from EVERY order to the church (or charity) of the purchaser's choice.

The business will be called Kelsey Likes Cupcakes.  I don't have a website (yet), but I can be contacted via email at kelseylikescupcakes@gmail.com or by phone at (402) 455-1173.  I will make pretty much whatever you want and my prices are really reasonable. :)

Finally, as far as the German goes, I want to actually get out my textbook and grammar books and go through them until I can explain German grammar and word order better than English.  In addition, I want to go through all of the German movies and TV shows my sister lent me until I can actually understand spoken German when it's at a conversational pace.  I don't have a timeline for this goal, but I'd like to be much better in August than I am now.

On that note, I need to get back to the cupcakes I'm working on for a dinner tomorrow.  Hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!

Tschüss!

Spring! (Almost..maybe...I hope.)

After an unusually long lasting winter, we actually had something resembling Spring this weekend!  It was really nice, because I had a super cute Easter dress and I didn't want it to be unbearably cold.  Also, I've been anxious for it to warm up for some time because I like running outside but I don't like being cold and this usually results in me either going to the gym or not doing anything.  Even though it was much chillier today than it was the past few days, Matt and I finally got to run outside after I made him pinky promise that we would go today.

I forgot how good it feels to run outside.  Running on a treadmill works fine when it's cold out, but there's something to be said for running on a track or just on sidewalks.  I think it's much nicer to be able to measure the distance that you've traveled by the number of laps or the number of blocks than by the counter on the treadmill.  I've also noticed that time goes by much faster that way.  Hopefully the weather decides to move past this one last wanna-be snow storm tonight and just warm up for good because I am itching to be able to run outside and not make the trek to the gym every time I want to work out.

The other thing about it being Spring means that there is a significantly smaller amount of time for me to get my German in working order before the big trip to Austria.  I've been majorly slacking there with the number of crazy/stressful things going on in my life but I'm hoping to step it up.  I have several German movies/TV series that my sister lent me to practice my German, and those are all on the docket for the next weeks and months.  I'm hoping that I can find a few more German movies to watch on Netflix as well, so we'll see.

In any event, the crazy things in my life appear to be slowing down and leaving time in my schedule to focus on the things I want to do to improve myself.  I'm just going to keep chugging along and hopefully continue to see progress!

My husband is awesome.

I've written a little bit about him before, but after the last couple of days I've decided that my wonderful, amazing, sweet, fantastic husband deserves a post of his own.  He makes me laugh without trying, makes me happy on my worst days, and is so incredibly supportive of me in whatever I want to do.  He makes me feel like I can do anything.  I got absurdly lucky with him and I honestly have no idea how.

This is us from (almost) 3 years ago!  Time has flown.

Matt's been my biggest supporter and motivator through this experiment that I started a little over a year ago.  I've not always been successful, but he's always been there pushing me to keep going when I stop, or to do better when I feel like I'm doing the best that I can.  I love that he's taken this on as well, because having him as a workout partner makes me 100% better.  I was running yesterday and had 1 minute and 30 seconds left to go which doesn't seem like much but it is. I didn't see the 1 at the beginning and I was already feeling like I wasn't going to make it the 30 seconds that I thought I had left.  I looked at him and just said "Please tell me I can do this."  He kept encouraging me through the last minute and I'm 100% sure that he's the only reason I actually finished my run.  It doesn't seem like much, but I would have been kicking myself for not finishing that extra minute.  There's so much satisfaction in saying that you were able to finish a difficult workout and I wouldn't have finished mine without Matt's encouragement.

Beyond that, I just want to give him MAJOR kudos because he has lost almost 30 pounds (and gained a whole bunch of muscle) since November.  We've been stuck in a rut a bit here lately, but he has worked SO HARD to get to this point and I am so, so incredibly proud of everything he's done.  His progress makes me want to work harder and it just adds to our motivation.  

Part of the reason we have been stuck in a rut is because we have (or mostly he has) been dealing with a lot of stress from a lot of different sources.  Even so, after accidentally getting locked out of our house yesterday after he had already had a ridiculously stressful day at work, he ran to the store to pick up some groceries while I hurried home to let him in the house.  I got home and opened the door and he walked in and handed me these:

I just stared at him blankly for a second and said, "But you're the one having a terrible time.  Why do I get flowers?"  He told me (like it was the most obvious thing in the world), "You're the one who's helping me through it."  It was a simple gesture, but it speaks volumes about the kind of man he is - one who, as I've said a million times before, I am so, so lucky to have married. :)

Why Women Should Do Strength Training

For as long as I can remember, I've preferred strength training to cardio.  When I was 10 years old in gym class and preparing for Pacer Tests or the mile run (these gym class periods were basically the worst of my life) if I could have been given the choice between spending an hour doing push-ups and crunches instead of running, I probably would have kissed the person who offered.  I've since gotten over my fear/loathing of running, but I still prefer strength training to cardio 99% of the time.  (The 1% accounts for the times that I've got something I need to think through.  Nothing clears your head better than a nice long run.)  This thinking puts me in a very small fraction of women.

When Matt and I go to the gym, I'm often the only woman (or one of two) in the weight room.  Some would attribute this to the fact that we get to the gym between 5 and 6 am, but when we were going later the ratio was the same.  The number of men in the room outnumber the women by a significant amount.  There seems to be this idea among women that we should do cardio and men are okay to do strength training.  One of my coworkers even told me that she only ever does cardio because she doesn't want to bulk up.  I think that many women have a lot of ideas about strength training, cardio, or working out in general that are wrong.  I've done research on this particular topic (and can speak from experience too!) and would like to make the case for why women should do strength training in conjunction with (not instead of!) cardio.

1.  Contrary to the fears of many women like my coworker, doing strength training will not cause you to bulk up.  Testosterone is one of the major players in building muscle mass and men have significantly more of it than women.  Without taking in large amounts of testosterone, strength training will not bulk you up.  It will give you definition, however, and curves in the places you want them.

2. Cardio is not the only way to lose weight.  For every pound of muscle you gain, you can burn an extra 30-50 calories per day - which adds up to losing 3 pounds of fat per year per pound of muscle you add without so much as changing your diet!  In addition, your metabolism spikes after strength training and can stay elevated for up to several days afterward.  (The effect is especially noticeable if you do cardio after your weight training workout!) Speaking from personal experience, your baseline metabolism increases as well.  I've noticed that where I used to be cold (and where all my current coworkers still are) I've been comfortable.  This is likely because my metabolism has increased and it has the pleasant side effect of keeping me warm.

3. This isn't unique to women, but the number of ways strength training is beneficial to health is kind of amazing.  It can help stave off Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Osteoporosis.

4. It can boost self-esteem and self-confidence.  I can personally attest to this one - I track my weight lifting at the gym and watching the numbers increase since I started has been a huge confidence booster.  You can know that you're making progress even if you don't see it on the scale or in the mirror.  But my absolute favorite thing is feeling the difference when I flex my muscles.  It's such a good feeling to be able to notice the change.  I'm pretty sure I make Matt feel how strong my various muscle groups are at least daily.  He probably thinks I'm insane, but it makes me feel good about myself.

5. It can alleviate pain.  I've had back problems for the past several years that I have noticed less and less frequently since Matt and I started seriously working out.  I've strengthened the muscles in my back and core, and it has made all the difference in the world.  Working out your muscles can also increase joint stability and build stronger connective tissue.

There are probably a hundred more reasons, but I covered the big ones.  I can definitely understand the intimidation women feel when they walk into the weight lifting area of a gym because I still feel it most times I'm there.  I manage to work through it though, because I know that the end result is going to be worth it.  I have never gotten a strange stare or had anyone say anything to me.  I comment to Matt all the time that I feel like a weakling because there are so many times when I have to use the smallest weight available, but I've only ever gotten support from him and from the others in the weight room.  I only hope that what I've said encourages some woman somewhere to start looking into or trying weight lifting.  It can be kind of terrifying and intimidating at first, but when you move beyond that the benefits are countless.

On that note, I'm going to go take a nap.  The early wake-ups and gym trips are always worth it, but I'll still take as much sleep as I can get. :)

Post-hiatus Blog

Apparently my goal to write a blog post a week has been incredibly successful, except for the minor detail about me not having written a blog in about 8 weeks.  Oooooops.  Anyway, this blog is going to make up for that with a vengeance (I hope).  I've pretty much come up with about a topic a day to write about, I just haven't had the time and/or energy and/or motivation to actually sit down and write about it.  But now that I have 4 hours of migraine-induced sleep behind me, I have the time AND energy AND motivation to actually write.  Yay!

So, first things first: I'm getting on my soapbox and getting my ranting out. Skip the next two paragraphs if you don't want to listen. :)

 I heard a commercial the other day that made me really, really annoyed.  It's for a plastic surgery firm that advertises that they can fix "nature's mistakes".  There's also a plastic surgery firm (not sure if it's the same one) who's advertised the "Mommy Makeover" for women who want their pre-pregnancy bodies back post-pregnancy.  I have three MAJOR issues with this.  First, these commercials are never directed at men.  Why is it that women are expected to maintain themselves to this level but men can just get by?  So, so, super annoying.  Second, I understand that bodies change with age and that you get wrinkles, etc.  I should probably preface this by saying that, given my genetics, I will probably have a significant amount of grey in my hair by the age of 35 and you bet that I will be dyeing my hair long before then to cover it up.  But there is a HUGE difference between that (a temporary, non-invasive, and generally common practice even for women whose hair isn't grey) and having surgery to alter one's appearance to make them look younger.  I understand that aging happens and that eventually I will get wrinkles and all of the fun things that come with getting older.  I will, however, never surgically alter any of those things.  I think so much is wrong with society that anyone would refer to aging as a mistake; that it's not okay to age naturally or to just appear as who you are.  This is also coming from the girl who was forced into wearing makeup on her wedding day, but this is what we get from society: it is not okay to be who you are.  It's disgusting and annoying and I think it's absolutely appalling.  I'm glad that, for the most part, I have enough self esteem to say that I am who I am and I am (mostly) okay with that person and I am trying to fix the problems I have.  I also have an amazing husband who does nothing but shower me with compliments, even when I'm having my worst day.

What makes me especially livid, though, is the fact that there are "individualized mommy makeovers".  I have never had a child so I can't speak to the struggles that women go through after having a child to return to as close as possible to their pre-pregnancy body, but I do know this: that womens' bodies fundamentally change during and after pregnancy.  You cannot (CANNOT) return to your pre-pregnancy body after the fact.  Your skeletal structure is permanently changed during the course of pregnancy and this means that the rest of your body is affected.  So hearing commercials saying that they'll do tummy tucks or breast augmentations or liposuction for women who want to return to their pre-pregnancy bodies makes me want to bang my head against the wall.  I imagine that it is very difficult to find the time to exercise and take as much care of yourself as you did before having a baby once the baby has actually arrived.  I do know a few people, however, who have managed to find the time to exercise and return to the same size they were pre-pregnancy without liposuction or a tummy tuck or anything else.  They did it naturally so I know it's possible.  The thing that I want to make abundantly clear though, is that it is OKAY to not have the same body post-pregnancy.  When Matthew and I have kids, I have no doubt that I'll put back on some of the weight that I plan to lose this year and I know that it will be okay if I don't lose it immediately afterward.  I can't imagine what it would be like to live with the idea that I have to be exactly as I was before and anything else is unacceptable.  It must be absolutely awful to be under that impression that having some physical imperfections is not okay, ESPECIALLY for a woman who has just had a baby through the miracle that is childbirth.  Bodily imperfections aren't a bad thing - they tell the story of your life.  I have scars that I love talking about because of the funny reasons why I have them - and any bodily changes that occur when I'm pregnant will be celebrated because they are the result of bringing a new life into this world.  That someone could think otherwise makes me sad for humanity.

Now that I'm off my soapbox, moving on to the more blog-related things.

Matthew and I have recently-ish started going to the gym really, really early in the morning (we're usually out of bed by 4:45 or so.  We LOVE it.  It frees up our evenings so we have more time to do the things we need to or want to do, like eating a relaxing dinner and watching our favorite TV show or cleaning.  It's also helped boost my metabolism and puts me in a great mood for the day.  On the days we don't go to the gym or have to go in the evening for whatever reason, I can't stand it.  I think Matt and I are both naturally early risers anyway (him more than me, but I'm adjusting nicely!) so it works out wonderfully for us.  I highly recommend giving it a try!

On the same note, we met with Matt's trainer today and spent an hour going over nutrition.  We now have a list of approved foods and came away with some GREAT insights and fun facts.  Among the things we learned:

- Everyone's portion size is different and it is based on the size of your fist.  If it's bigger than your fist, you shouldn't eat it in one sitting.
- The higher your metabolism, the warmer you are.  I've always been a cold body but I've been noticing lately that when everyone else is freezing at work, I have been comfortable.  This is an indication that my metabolism has definitely picked up steam, much in thanks to all the strength training I've been doing.
- You shouldn't eat any simple carbs (sugars like fruits, soda, candy, etc) after your "noon" (whenever you eat your lunch, basically) and no carbs at all after 7 pm as the body can't process them effectively.
- Every meal needs to contain one serving of protein and one serving of a carbohydrate (except the meals after 7 pm) and that you should eat every 3-4 hours.
- That it is okay (and recommended!) to eat before bed (but only a single serving of a protein) as it will help you sleep better and curb any midnight cravings.
- One free meal per week is okay and encouraged!  Only rules are that the meal has to contain a protein and a carb, we have to be able to eat another meal of a protein (and a carb, if before 7 pm) again 3 hours later, and that we can't spend more than an hour eating.  I'm pretty sure this means that I'll be eating Runza once per week.
- Eat before going to the gym in the morning so that we have the energy for our morning workout.  If you eat a single serving of a protein and a carb, it shouldn't be enough to make you sick.

And, in my opinion, the one that everyone (especially those who drink diet soda) needs to understand:
- Regular soda is better for you than diet soda (which isn't saying much). Diet soda is absolutely terrible for you.  The ingredients in diet soda only need heat and moisture - both of which the body provides - to continue the chemical process into formaldehyde (an embalming agent).  Since heat and moisture are both provided by the body, this change does occur and can cause sepsis in people who drink large amounts of diet soda.  Sepsis makes you lethargic and can (very eventually) be deadly.  People say everything is okay in moderation, but I feel like formaldehyde doesn't count.

I should also note that the definition of protein is much more expansive than one might imagine.  Matt and I are really, really super excited to start our new nutrition plan and are really looking forward to the progress we'll make!

As far as German goes, I've made some changes.  From what I've been told, my written German is fantastic.  My problem comes with speaking and listening to German, which Rosetta Stone is not really helpful with.  I can repeat what it tells me to, but I am terrible at coming up with the appropriate things to say in the context of a conversation.  It takes me way too long to formulate sentences.  At the suggestion of several friends who've learned English by watching TV shows or movies, I've started doing just that - Netflix has a decent selection of German movies and I've watched a couple.  They are definitely different from American movies to be sure, but they've all really encouraged me to think, beyond just about the German language. One of my friends also sent me the German Harry Potter audiobooks that I've been listening to.  Because I'm so familiar with the stories, there are a lot of things that I pick up on that I wouldn't otherwise and there are a lot of words that I've heard that I've been able to understand because I know the books so well in English.  It's also really interesting to see how they differ from or are similar to the English books.  So far I'm only onto chapter 5 of the first book but I've listened to the first couple chapters (or parts of them) more than once so I get the full meaning and to attempt to understand them better.

It's been very, very difficult to learn German without living in a German-speaking country or having access to a ton of resources, but having friends who are native speakers (and a sister who's close to fluent) who are willing to help me has been HUGELY beneficial and helpful.  Big thanks to everyone who's helped!  Hopefully it all pays off and when Matt and I make it to Austria, my German will be good enough that I can actually have the conversations in German that I'd like to.

Anyway, it's late and I have to get up early and I think I've written enough for now.  Till next time...

Tschüss!