Recovery

Hello internet world!

I’ve tried over and over to restart this blog, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve guilt myself about it for too long.

SO, that said, I’m saying a temporary good-bye until I can get a proper set up in to be able to successfully post. I’ll be out for about a month or so, until I can get proper work equipment and an area to have my posts be a positive element in my life. I’m currently out a functioning computer of my own, and I’ve been meaning to pick up a new digital camera, but being in the situation where we’re looking to move soon, that’s just going to have to be held off until then.

Also, I’ve been having some serious struggles with health issues lately, which is completely affecting my energy levels. I’ve been recovering from a pretty bad infection and trying to balance a busy life with a new Monday-Friday work load. It’s taken a toll on everything, including my workout routine, which has come to a screeching halt for about three weeks. I’m a little discouraged about it, but it can’t be helped.

I have to say, I’ve appreciated the encouragement from my friends, family and followers on this blog. It means the world to me to have someone stop by and read my silly ramblings about life. Like I said, this isn’t a permanent good-bye, just a time to get my life back into order before setting another project on my already-full plate.

Before I go on my blog-cation, (ha!) I just want to say a big thank-you to everyone!

I’ll see you in a while!

❤ Hojo

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Sleepy Weekend

This weekend has been the end of a very long going sinus infection, but I’m feeling better and slowly getting my energy back enough to make sure I’m rested up to handle the entire week.

Tomorrow, I’m picking up a new digital camera. Readers, beware! It’s not going to be pretty. (Or is, depending how you rate my photography skills!)

Follow that truck!

Anyway, not too much exciting this week. There was the E3 Conference that everyone is up in arms about. While I do enjoy watching the conference with Kurt, it does seem like it’s slowly morphing into what resembles a political campaign, mudslinging and all.  I’m excited about: Final Fantasy XXV, and hoping it’s going to be a little bit better than the past four attempts at Final Fantasies. I’m not quite sure about the new XBOX one or the  PS4, but I know, for some reason, we have them both on preorder on Amazon. Yippee. (Notice my enthusiasm?)

I’m still off in Skyrim land, so that’s how much my opinion counts at this point.

Here’s a picture of some pretty clouds! (*dances away*)

It’s been absolutely beautiful here in SoCal. I’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors, just for the sake of being outdoors on a summer day. I love it!

I’ve been living it up this summer, in my shorts, and snacking on insane amounts of fresh fruit that I’ve picked up every other day. It really helps keep me on track when I’m having sweet cravings.

Anyway, that’s been my (rather uneventful) weekend.

I’m working on a project with my blog coming up, so things are going to get interesting in a couple weeks.

Have a good week, everyone!

<3Hojo (And the wacky cat)

Spinning Rooms

The Spring semester is officially OVER. It came to a close with my last Interior Design final, and one of the classes I’m extremely sad is ending.

Right into it, yesterday’s run broke into the 9-minute mile range (yaay!), I was SO excited to be able to run an under-10-minute mile. Given, my distance isn’t getting any longer, but my mile time is gradually shortening. Yesterday’s run felt GOOD! I love being able to get out there and give all my frustrations to the horse trails. It’s like my Zen.

Anyway, today was an interesting one. I ended up going home from work early due to some extreme dizziness and vertigo. Over the past few weeks I’ve shrugged off going to the doctor as being too busy/not sick enough (a.k.a. dying) and taking the mentality of “It’ll go away, eventually.” NOPE. I officially have a pretty severe sinus infection that has also turned into an ear infection. Learned my lesson. So I’ve got some antibiotics and anti-emetics (motion sickness medication) and I’m going to take it easy over the next couple weeks. *Sigh*

After spending 3-4 hours in Urgent Care today, I managed to drag myself back out to school to take my final exam. Here’s the thing, my school is down the street from my work. Home is 45 minutes away from work. If there were two trains, and one traveled at 45 miles an hour, and another train traveling at 35 miles an hour…Huh? Oh, I’m sorry, I got distracted. What was I saying? <—My whole day has been like that. Half-finished stories and anecdotes into what feels like ADHD. SQUIRREL!

What I’m Reading
I started Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan this week.

It’s a medical/psychological mystery book, and is super interesting. A young girl wakes up in a hospital room, in restraints, and can not recall the events leading up to her stay . The book describes her journey through a mental and physical battle against a mystery illness that affects the functions of her brain. It’s fascinating if you’ve ever taken an anatomy or psychology class, and understand the basic functions of the brain, and if you haven’t, the author gives a brief rundown of the terminology as she goes.
Not recommended for hypochondriacs.

So I was going to upload some more pictures from the past couple days, but that’s not happening tonight due to some technical difficulties (my phone is dead).

Goodnight everyone. Tomorrow WILL be better. (And a HECK of a lot more organized!) Ha!

❤ Hojo

A Word on Life.

School/Life
So, as you all know, I’ve been working on my nursing degree for God knows how long. It hasn’t been an easy journey, being a full-time student and working full time. Life happens, these things aren’t easy. I’ve been working since I’ve been out of high school, and it’s been tough to watch all of my friends graduate while I feel stuck behind. Now, as I’m much older and more mature, I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world. I’ve struggled with taking classes, it doesn’t mean I’m dumb, it just means that life gets in the way sometimes. In high school, I was a top-scoring student, I had good grades and was extremely involved. In college, things changed, and I had to learn how to juggle the world around me. I wasn’t as fortunate as my peers, who were allowed to study full-time without any worries, but that’s okay. I’m making my way in life, and that’s just how things work.

What I’m saying is:
While it’s slightly embarrassing to admit I haven’t even finished Community College, I’m almost done, and I have so much life experience, it was all worth it. Things have happened where I might not be able to transfer in the Spring, but I’m okay with that. I have a steady job that I can stay at for a couple years while I finish school. There’s no rush. I have 30 units (about a year of full-time school) to finish my Registered Nursing Degree. If it takes me three more years to complete my bachelor’s, then by all means, it’s okay.

Sometimes, we need to tell ourselves that it’s okay to have different plans from the ideal. I’ve spent a good portion of my adulthood comparing myself to everyone else my age. Now that I’m a little bit older, and a little bit wiser, I’ve come to realize that it’s not my plan; it’s God’s. I have to put faith in the fact that I’m being led in the right direction. I have an amazing job for my age. Sure, I’m not a CEO or a Physician or anything, but things are stable, more than they’ve ever been.

*Gets off soapbox*

<3Hojo

It’s SUMMER! Activities Galore!

Okay, guys, I’ve been sick. And not the *cough cough* 24-hour flu kind of sick. I’ve been struggling with a few week’s worth of on again-off again sinus infections that have been killing me. Any of my other Californians notice that this has been the worst allergy season EVER???

Anyway, my sinus infection turned into an ear infection which turned into an energy-sapped, grumpy Hojo. I’ve been so out of character the past couple of weeks, and I’m so tired of being sick, I just want to feel better and get back into my routine.

That said, we’ve got a LOT of exciting things coming up this summer. I’m on the fence about taking summer classes, which I’ll talk about later. Camping is one of the big events we’re planning for. We went camping last year with Kurt’s sister, and I’d have to say it was a success, so we’re looking into getting more into  the camping/hiking aspect of things.

That’s my first attempt at a Blog Graphic.
I love the idea of being out in nature and going on adventures. We went hiking last week to the Ice House Canyon Trail on Mt. Baldy, and it was nothing short of beautiful!

We did realize that if we were going to get into hiking, that I needed to invest in a good pair of hiking boots, and we both needed camelbacks, since the dust really started to get to us. It’s exciting getting into a new hobby, and we found out we it burned about 300 calories from a 2 mile walk. Woo-hoo!

We’re also looking into getting a good tent. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Finances

Another big event lately, is that I signed up for the Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University at the end of August. It’s basically a class on how to handle your money and personal finances. I’m spending the summer figuring out how to manage my money and save up so we can move into our own place. I’m extremely excited, because I’m ready for things to just go back to normal, (ever since the whole job fiasco). I’m ready to kick some butt!

Workouts

Tonight, I’m going for a run. I’m still working on getting back into a routine, but I’m becoming really happy with how things are turning out. I’m just looking to boost my energy levels after getting over this tough allergy season. I’m going to (try) to keep up with the morning workout routine, as well as running 3 days a week.

I was going to get a little philosophical here, but I’ve decided to save that for a later post.

Tonight, we’re barbecuing Vietnamese-Style Cornish Game Hens (I linked the recipe) and Bacon-Wrapped Quail. Last week’s quail was SO good!

(How cool is this picture???) The flames weren’t really purple, that’s just my camera trying to compensate for the dark, but WHOA.

 

I also had to make another Macaron run from Merely Sweets in Brea. It was a French kind of day, since I picked up my favorite Paris, Amour lotion from Bath and Body Works.

It’s been a good week, and I’m trying to muster up the energy to keep this blog afloat. I might pick up some chewable multivitamins (yes, I am a kid inside!) to try and give myself that extra boost.

That’s my week, people!

❤ Hojo

An Honest Post.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking lately, and I think I’ve found the reason I’ve taken a break from blogging. There’s been a lot going on in my life recently, and in all honesty, my life has turned on to a a completely different path. That said, I don’t think I’ve been honest with myself lately in my topics. While I really would have liked to have a positive and happy-go-lucky workout blog, that’s not all my life is. I love running and being outside, but I have a lot of other aspects about my life that I don’t post because I don’t feel they fit the theme of the blog.

Here’s one: I LOVE chocolate and barbecue. We barbecue once a week, but that’s not fitting with the diet and exercise category, so I tend to omit my discussing something cool we barbecued on the weekend. I’m also not going to admit I ate an entire Symphony bar or three slices of Costco pizza on the way home the other day. But I just did, because I’m going to start being honest with myself.

I’m a generally healthy person, I’m not super-skinny, and while there was a point where I was, I don’t think I really want to be that skinny ever again. I looked like a skeleton with abs. (5’9” and 135 lbs). I think it’s fun to have a my hourglass shape, and still be in the normal weight limits for my age and height. It’s normal. While I do like to tone up, and find positive ways to do it, I’m not going to go ahead and push that I prefer working out over anything else in my life. And I think that’s where I got stuck with this blog.

My blog is about finding balance in my life. That was the original intent. It’s about not having to give up everything you love to live a happy life. Quite the opposite. Have a piece of chocolate every once in a while. Heck, I’m female, we have cravings, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

That’s what inspired me about the teachings or Mireille Guiliano, enjoying yourself, indulging every once in a while, but finding balance so it doesn’t affect your life in a negative way.

I found myself feeling guilty for not working out, not posting pictures, not making a super-healthy dinner, so it turned my blog into a sort of negative aspect of my life: a reminder I wasn’t a health addict. And I’m not! I get a lot of questions as to how I stay in such good shape, while being a rather normal person, and it’s balance. When I know I’m picking  up a few extra pounds, I spend a couple extra days a week walking or running. I replace my lunches with salads, and cut out the high-calorie foods. I eat more vegetables and drink a ton of water.

I’m a nurse, there’s no super-secret way to lose weight. There’s no diet that shrinks the fat cells or changes your DNA to make you skinnier. Eat healthy. You can juice, or go Paleo, or Vegan, or stand on your head, but that’s the basis of every diet: eating healthy, taking out the processed foods, and making your portions smaller.

That said, I’m going to change the blog a little bit and be honest and be myself. I love having a place to write about my life. I don’t mind if I don’t have an audience, I’m not a big attention-seeking person anyway. And that’s okay.

I’m Holly, I love chocolate and coffee, the rain, interior design, dubstep classical music, peonies, my cat, lazy Sundays with video games, and reading until I fall asleep. That’s just who I am. You write about what you know, your life experiences, and I’m going to do just that.

<3Hojo