A Re-evaluation!

I think it is time to re-evaluate the purpose of my blog. It has gone from a way to monitor my progress with sloppy grammar and quick thoughts, to totally thrown under the rug as my life grew hectic. Is there a reason for me to blog any longer. There has to be. I am a writer by habit, passion and skill and God knows there has to be something in this world worth discussing. I will always be struggling to stay in shape and stay healthy physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Maybe that is my new inspiration. Keeping the dust out of the four corners of my life. In fact, I think it's a wonderful idea and for anyone who wants to do the same, I am humbled to have company.
Balance is something I have greatly struggled with my freshman year in college. Too much leisure vs. too little leisure. Dining hall vs. cooking in my grandparents' kitchen. Studying vs. going to the park. Going to the gym vs. taking a nap. I think college is the best time to grow in all four areas of my life and if I don't start keeping tabs on my progress now, how will I know what to do when life comes at me full force.
Each day (let's shoot for 6 days a week) I will track my physical progress (eating and training), my mental progress (school, work, extra reading) my spiritual self (religious and otherwise) and emotionally (happiness, self-esteem). There is no formal scale I have to judge myself by, just a thought here and there of how I am feeling and doing everyday.

Day 1

Physical: I trained incredibly hard today at American Health Centers with Josh. It was a leg day and I started with 30 incline sit ups with an increasing incline ever set. The highlight of my workout was completing a set of 12 plie squats with a 70 pound dumb bell. I didn't even know I could do that! Not long ago it was tough to do that many with 35 pounds! I felt like a total bad ass.
Nutrition Wise I have been following the Eat Clean Program. It basically includes foods found naturally with the emphasis on lean proteins, fruits and vegetables (mostly vegetables), whole grains in their truest form, and healthy fats. I started last Saturday and was off to a rough start. I limited myself to the strictest plan of the diet to begin with (bad idea). I was to eat only proteins, veggies and 1 apple/pear per day with one sweet potato also. Training as hard as I do (6 days a week for 1 or more hours) this was a nearly impossible immediate transition. So I have found a happy medium, including fewer carbohydrates than the more relaxed second plan but including dairy (greek yogurt) and healthy fats (peanut butter, coconut oil) to make sure my caloric needs are met. Today for instance I ate:
M1- oatmeal, protein powder, pumpkin
M2- Pear, Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip
M3- Salmon, Salad, 2 bites of Whole grain Penne
M4- Ezekial wrap w/ Peanut Butter and half an apple
M5- Eat clean almost fried rice (Protein+loads o veggies+brown rice+soysauce+egg white)
M6- Fage nonfat greek yogurt, berries.
Overall, a great day (although I did sneak in a nibble of cookie dough while making Calvin his favorite cookies, it was much better than the 1/4 a roll i would have typically eaten)

Spiritual: I must admit, I haven't been to church in months. I go on the rare occasion that I am home and that is all. I still believe, and I still pray but I have my doubts in the Catholic church and am working to better understand these doubts that I have. More details on this as I contemplate them. This is definitely my weakest corner.

Mental: I recently purchased an Amazon Kindle and it was beyond worth the investment. Books are cheaper and I can download them in seconds. I have been downloading memoirs and biographies constantly and without restraint as well as a few pieces of fiction. I started Always Looking Up By Michael J. Fox and was intrigued by the information on Parkinson's Disease and treatment options including stem cell research. This is an issue I have not learned enough to have an opinion on so when the book took a turn to Preacher town I had to put it down. The first 1/3 of the book was a testament to the strength of Parkinson's patients and a cry for help. After that it was all about stem cell research, how much Bush sucked (not...although it was definitely time for him to go after year 6) and Fox's intermingling with many senators. Since then I read a quick love story with a happy ending and have moved on to Three Weeks With My Brother
a memoir by Nicholas Sparks. I am enjoying it enormously and learning more about ancient cultures than I remember from world history. It's a great read.

Emotional: Honestly, it's sunny outside, I have an amazing boyfriend, the best family, and I'm spending most of my summer in an internship with White House Black Market, a fashion brand that I love. Honestly, I have it made in the shade. I'm spending a week or so with my dad, traveling to the Memphis in May Barbeque Championships, which we have both been wanting to go to for years. It's on our way(ish) to Fort Myers where my job is. After that I'll spend two weeks with Calvin on Siesta Key before the craziness starts.

Keeps gettin better

These last 2 weeks have been flying by and now the first game is in less than 2 days! My days have been consumed by classes, cheerleading, new friends, new boyfriend and homework. I love it. I am definitely losing the freshman 15 between leancuisines between class and practice, walking all over the place, kick ass workouts at the rec, and practices that kick my ass just as much. Life is good in Huntington West Virginia! I am surrounded by good people, good energy and good fun! I am thriving here and I love the way I feel!
Practices have been good. I am finally breaking that self made shell of shy and stoicness. Richie actually just texted me this afternoon and said lets tumble tomorrow because I know you can do it and I dont want you to be stressed about it anymore. That was sooo sweet and meant so much to me! Its great to have a kind of mike here that I know totally has my back at all times!
The first volleyball game was last night and I didnt think I would be nervous but I was a little. I totally forgot what cheering in front of a crowd is like! I'm so glad I had that before the big game on Saturday! Speaking of big games, I'm on the Virginia Tech trip! The very first away game if the year!! I am so pumped! So things in the world of krista are wonderful :)

a great start to my new life

I am loving life here on campus! Even cheerleading is stressing me out less. I'm concentrating more on my own personal improvement than on what everyone else is doing and I feel myself getting better and stronger everyday. We've been running the stairs in the arena which is tough but I definitely feel like it gets easier every time. Tonight we have practice early and were supposed to go until 10 but after a weekend FULLL of events Duane has decided to cut practice short. Thank Heaven! I hung out with a lacrosse player named Calvin on friday. He's so nice and wayyyyy cute! We're hanging out tomorrow I think. Come to think of it tomorrow is packed! Class from 10-12, lunch, class 1-3 workout, kroger with a friend to get stuff to make breakfast on saturday before the game for some people, dinner of some sort, Young Life leader training 7-8 and then something with Calvin. Whew I'm thinking I'll be studying during that little in between time!
Practice ended up being over at 8:30 which was amazing! So I went to Happy Hour at Applebees with a couple people. I am just having so much fun in college. My tumbling and stunting gets better every practice so I cant complain about anything really!

Pushing through!

I'm trying really hard not to stress for practice. I've been feeling a little homesick today and have been feeling a little under the weather with an upset stomach. I talked to Natalie last night and she really helped me. I am determined to be more aggressive tonight! I'm so determined to push through this trying time and know that soon I'll be looking back on it saying that was nothing! Tonight I am going to have the best practice ever! Deep breath! Time to show my coaches how I really am!

great beginnings and endings

What an eventful day today has been! It started at 8 with a shower and some e-mails back home to little brother and sister. My first class was at 10. Business communications which was pretty cool and laid back. my second class was right after that and it was math with this little asian lady that hardly spoke english! But she was really nice and explained things as well as she could. at noon Rebecca and I went to lunch at the dining hall which was more of a snack consisting of a little salad, some cottage cheese and 2 melon wedges. So my last 2 classes were UNI 101 which was awesome because I have an awesome teacher and english which sucked because I think I'm stuck in retard enlgish with a teacher who uses words like "Knapsack" and "writing inplement" so rebecca and I met up with 2 other girls to go work out around 4 which was great except all the stupid boys were hogging the free weights! So i ran a lot more than I thought and would and was really proud of myself! Then I came back worked on some homework and saw that a bunch of people had been stunting and didnt care to tell me about it. How nice right?? So that pretty much pissed me off and I tried to let it go but then Corey asked me to go out to dinner so I was like ok whatever. Well he ended up having to bring his 2 year old sister and that just sent my stress level sky rocketing A. because i looked like an 18 year old mother and B. because i was not in the mood to deal with her which I ended up doing while Corey was passive. So I was very relieved to get back to the room and hang out and BLOG!! I just hapened to get a chance to talk to one of my coaches who gave me a little tough love and a pep talk :) So the day was definitely great beginning and end with a bit of a rough middle. Tomorrow is going to be GRRRREAT! :)

settling in :)

well tomorrow is my first day of classes so today my room mate and I are going to adventure around campus a bit. Have brunch in the dining hall, find our mail boxes, class rooms, etc. I'm really excited to start classes tomorrow and meet some more people. We worked an event called RecFest yesterday at the new rec center which was really like an open house and was pretty cool! My roommate rebecca is definitely different from me but shes really nice and we have very similar ideas and values. I went out last night to a friends party at a bar and it was ok but its not as much fun when youre not drinking thats for SURE!!! So I was home by 12. and rebecca and i talked an chatted a while before going to sleep. Today we have practice and I'm a little nervouse but I think we'll be spending a lot of time on dances and cheers which will distract from tumbling!!!! thank HEAVEN!!! So I'm just trying not to think about it or worry about it.

finally here!!!

I'm HERE!!!! I have now been a college student for over 24 hours now! Dad and I got everything moved in by noon and by the afternoon and this morning there were only details to worry about! Dad and I spent most of the day today doing things together like setting up my wireless, running to WalMart for forgotten items, stopping by the bank etc. I have only really been on my own for a couple hours now. I'm so excited. I ran into a lot of people I knew today and talked to alot of random new people and then saw some of the team stunting on the practice field for the band on my way back to my dorm from visiting nana and papa. I'm not tooo stressed about everything. Right now I am just completely exhausted. I dont like not having mike around to tumble but its ok! Tomorrow I"m going to get signed up at the rec center early in the morning and then hang out and try to stay out of the way for most of the day and then have dinner with my roommate and her family! I cant wait to meet her!! Details on the move in tomorrow! I am exhausted!