Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Let the REAL Summer Begin

On my goodness, if I ever tell you that I want to take a quick couple of classes during the summer, slap me back to reality and tell me no!  The Monday after my nursing classes ended, I chose to start two (3) credit history classes to round out my general education credits needed to graduate.  Both of these classes were extremely intense, heavy reading, daily discussion boards, and a lot of extra worry.  I completed both classes in three weeks, with nearly everyone in my family upset with me.  My hubby was sick of all the time being spent on these classes even his time helping me through it all.  Both my kids felt like all I ever was doing was homework and shooing them out of the room.  My son even broke down in tears because he missed me.  Aww, darn you summer classes!  Either way I just finished taking the finals for these two classes last Friday and Saturday, then I had a day off from work yesterday and here I am back on my blog today.  The simple things in life like blogging bring me great joy.
Speaking of my new job, boy oh boy like I said in my last post (I think), hats off to all nursing staff in hospitals!  My job as a CNA has truly been kicking my butt that coupled with the fact that even though I was hired as casual (min. of 16 hrs per month) during my training weeks I am working more full-time hours.  Full time as a CNA is difficult physically when prior to this my job was sitting on my butt all day.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the workout I’m getting but sometimes walking around non-stop for 6 hours before I can even sit my booty down in a chair is terribly hard to get use to right off the bat.  That coupled with getting to know the unit and where everything is, is another issue.  This past weekend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I was scheduled three (12) hour shifts back to back but I just couldn’t imagine being able to stand on my feet that many hours so I asked my boss that since I was still training did she think I could just cut back to three (8)’s and she said yes.  I told her eventually I would be at a point where I would be working 12’s but not yet.  I don’t want to get burned out and not complete a month worth of work yet.
Lastly speaking of getting a good workout, recently on fb a few of my friends are commenting about how many calories they’re burning after doing a workout.  So after inquiring about what type of tool they used they said a calorie counter/heart rate monitor wrist watch.  They mentioned that each day they like to try a different activity to see how many calories they burned and then try to do better the next day.  I thought this was just the thing to help me get back into better shape during the summer before starting fall classes again.  So I went up to Wally World and purchased the $30 Proform Multi-Functional Heart Rate Monitor.  This thing is so cool, you can at any point push the button on the front and it will tell you your heart rate and it will also say the percentage of your target heart rate you are using.  I can push another button to see how many calories I am burning by tracking my heart rate.  For instance yesterday during normal daily activities I burned 333 calories in 278 minutes.  Then I went for a 22 minute jog and burned 290 calories.  What a difference huh? 
Alright peeps this is enough for my first blog in a long time.  I’ll write more in the week, especially about how fun it is to wait on my family again and doing wifely and motherly duties that I’ve been missing during my school semesters.
TTFN,
Zazzy

5 comments:

  1. glad to see you back girl! Missed your comments and posts. Poor T, I feel bad for them. I hope the rest of your time off they get some good mama time. It doesn't last forever baby! Hanging Tough, isn't that a NKOTB Song?

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  2. Thanks Dome, I'm absorbing all my mama time now. I just made banana cup cakes that I'll blog about later this week. It sure feels good to do something I know how to do and that's being a mom.
    Hangin' Tough, yea I do think that's an NKOTB song, haha.

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  3. Hey, wear that heartrate thingy to work and see how many calories you burn at work! :)

    I wish I had worn a mileage monitor when I worked in the hospital. I know we ran miles......

    Many were the times I did an entire 12 hr (and more!) with only one break at the end when doing the charting... :(

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  4. That's a lot of work, did you say that CNA job was on-call?

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  5. Oh CC - I've been noticing that I burn a little more than 500 calories per 8 hour shifts. I plan to wear it this coming week when I'm scheduled to work 12's and I'll let you know again. I don't know if I have my stride calculated right with my pedometer, so after I figure that I'll let you know.
    NPO- the CNA job is a casual position, but during the training portion (for about another week) I've been working 36 hours a week. After next week, I'll drop down to 20 hours a week at that job and my other job maybe another 12 hours totally about 32 during the summer months. Then I'll cut down to 16 hours a week after school starts again in the fall.

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