Second year BScN - one month in!

Yes, I'm still here.  Still in nursing school, still working on my fitness challenge, still a mom to three busy kids, still trying to somehow get a vague semblance of control over the chaos that was September 2012.

I am trying to get into our new routine and catch my breath. So much is going on, with so many extra-curricular activites, homework and assignments starting all at once, when school starts...for myself, my husband and our three kids!  At least the dog has her usual routine! (Yes, I am very grateful for the small things in life!!!)

I will write in much greater detail soon, I just need this one more weekend to catch up on so many things. For this year, I committed to being both a Brownie leader and a Sparks leader, with Girl Guides of Canada...what was I thinking????  I am sure (I hope!) that a new routine will emerge, and I will stop losing sleep thinking about all the stuff I still need to do.

Regarding my fitness challenge, I am very, very pleased to say that it is going full speed.  Honestly, I have never felt better.  I now run my "5 K a day" run, which I am now able to complete in under 40 minutes (I think 38 minutes is my personal best, so far).  The fact that I am running daily now astounds me completely.  I haven't run all year.  I just started this month.

A little over a month ago, physically I was the equivalent of a couch potato -- if one can be considered a couch potato without actually sitting on a couch!  Maybe "sedentary" is a better word -- I have a relatively active lifestyle given our family situation -- the kids keep us active -- but I wasn't doing any other activity as exercise.  I just moved when I had to.  Now I'm moving because I run every day.  And I love it.  I feel so incredibly good. 

I must say I owe the good, energizing feeling I get from running in helping me cope well with all the demands the past month has placed on me.

So even though my record keeping of my fitness challenge on my blog has faded, if I was keeping track, it would be a series of "5 km run" recorded daily...with a huge smile on my face.  What a feeling. :-)

If anyone is even remotely considering starting to be a little more active, or even start a project or hobby or even look into something they think they may find interesting -- just start.

And one final "poster" that brought a smile to my face:

Am still studying...but taking a quick break to blog...

Two more mid-terms await me this week, one on Thursday and one on Friday. 

I've worked my way through various population health models, and will need to do more physiology still tonight. 

Maybe next week I will attempt to re-surface socially for the first time since school and this huge lifestyle transition started.  I owe so many people phone calls and emails!  But I am optimistic about this re-joining of civil society, given that I'm almost back to normal with the latest round of family viruses, and I am truly getting into a studying groove.  And most importantly, I'm adjusting to being a student again and wrapping my head around the fact that this stage of life is my current reality (leaving a desk job to be a student again was a major shock to my system)!  I'm guessing I should be fully mentally adjusted to being a student by the time I return to my desk job in May 2012...

I really must get back to the books, but one last item I want to share tonight is a quiz I took recently, from the text book on "Life's Transitions: The Aging Process", from my Determinants of Health course.

It is a simple quiz, one that estimates your life expectancy (based on various health behaviours and heredity factors).

The good news is that I'm going to live to be 101 years old!!!  I guess I'll get be a nurse for many more years than I thought, given that I plan to never fully retire from this job. :-)

The quiz can be found at: www.livingto100.com  (oh yeah, and eat right, don't smoke and get your body moving, even if it is just a daily walk around the block!!!)   Best of luck!!!

OK, OK...am really going back to studying now...