Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Village people
My gym used to be World Gym. There were old people, young people, strong people and not-so-fit people. There were bodybuilders and gangbangers, college professors, real estate agents and housewives. There was yoga and cardio classes and daycare. It was good, and I was happy there. Then it changed to Planet Fitness, which is a so-called judgement free zone and where I have never felt so judged. No daycare. No classes. No heavy weights. No grunting policy. I don't grunt when I work out, but I definitely object to a place that says it doesn't judge but RINGS AN ALARM if someone grunts or drops weights or does anything else the management finds objectionable. So I had to stop going. So I got weak and flabby. But, as of this weekend, I am now a proud member of the Pikes Peak YMCA. Hooray. Daycare. Classes. Old people. Young people. strong and weak and fat people. And, as an extra added bonus, crazy people, too. I will lift again. I will be happy.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Help Wanted
Any yoga researchers out there want to dialogue about yoga as a treatment? About binge eating disorder? About how to write a dissertation?
I am busily working on my proposal, with the intention of getting it to the IRB before their next meeting in December. It's kind of fun to actually be getting this done.
I am busily working on my proposal, with the intention of getting it to the IRB before their next meeting in December. It's kind of fun to actually be getting this done.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Japanese Joy, Sanskrit samurai
I love sake. I am drinking some right now. In fact, because I am trying to watch my weight I am kind of having sake instead of having dinner. Although, good wife and mom that I am, I served my family a well-balanced meal that no one seemed to notice I barely ate.
I love alcoholic beverages. I really love martinis (vodka with olives) and every so often I like to drink scotch. I like red wine and white wine. Much to the horror of vinophiles everywhere, sometimes I like to put ice in my white wine. Perhaps it makes me declasse, but it also makes me happy.
I like silly drinks like margaritas and cosmos and stuff that you put umbrellas in but I don't drink those all that often because of the calorie count, to be perfectly honest.
I spend the morning-- indeed, the better part of the last ten days-- preparing my internship application. I am mostly applying to work with either criminal or elderly populations. Perhaps both at the same time. Like the criminal elderly. Lots of cool opportunities. I hope I get one. Many people applying for a few spots, which does concern me but there's not much more I can do than put out the best application possible.
Happily, I finished in time to do Mantra Girl's version of the Kundalini warrior workout before my kids came home from school. I love Kundalini. The elementary school roster (of all places) has a listing placed by a local Kundalini instructor. Contacting her is definitely on my to-do list, although admittedly not high on it at this point.
Tomorrow I need to print out all 130 pages of the application and send it off to the appropriate parties. Then I will hit the Title Nine sale in town. I think I'll dig up a leotard to wear so I can try things on with abandon. Kind of like Filene's Basement in the good old days.
I love alcoholic beverages. I really love martinis (vodka with olives) and every so often I like to drink scotch. I like red wine and white wine. Much to the horror of vinophiles everywhere, sometimes I like to put ice in my white wine. Perhaps it makes me declasse, but it also makes me happy.
I like silly drinks like margaritas and cosmos and stuff that you put umbrellas in but I don't drink those all that often because of the calorie count, to be perfectly honest.
I spend the morning-- indeed, the better part of the last ten days-- preparing my internship application. I am mostly applying to work with either criminal or elderly populations. Perhaps both at the same time. Like the criminal elderly. Lots of cool opportunities. I hope I get one. Many people applying for a few spots, which does concern me but there's not much more I can do than put out the best application possible.
Happily, I finished in time to do Mantra Girl's version of the Kundalini warrior workout before my kids came home from school. I love Kundalini. The elementary school roster (of all places) has a listing placed by a local Kundalini instructor. Contacting her is definitely on my to-do list, although admittedly not high on it at this point.
Tomorrow I need to print out all 130 pages of the application and send it off to the appropriate parties. Then I will hit the Title Nine sale in town. I think I'll dig up a leotard to wear so I can try things on with abandon. Kind of like Filene's Basement in the good old days.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Parent education day
Today is parent education day at my daughter's Sunday school class. Hmmm. There are so many things about which I could be educated.
Have been so busy actually working on my dissertation that I kind of forgot I had a blog about the whole thing. It is definitely a daunting process, this year-long paper. I have still not even handed in my proposal and I have over 50 pages written. But I need the first 3 chapters done to hand in the proposal, and I'm getting there, so I have hope. It's kind of cool, actually: the first 3 chapters sets up the whole thing. Chapter one is your idea and why you think it's a good one. Chap 2 is a literature review of all that has been done on the topic already. For me that means a review of existing treatments for binge eating disorder and a review of how yoga has been used as a treatment for mental illness.
Chapter three is methods-- how you plan to get your data. This is the part on which I have done the least work so far. I have to get a yoga teacher who is willing to work with me for little to no money. I have to find a studio that will let me use their place. I need to come up with the assessment instruments I will give my subjects before and after the intervention (yes, these cost money as well). I need to figure out how I will crunch the numbers once I've gotten all of my data. Unfortunately (more for him than me), the guy at my school who helps students out with all of this just had a heart attack. Which doesn't make me feel any better about all this number crunching stuff.
Once you've gotten all that finished you submit to the IRB (institutional review board), and then, once you get approved, off you go on actual data collection and the real fun starts. For me this means:
1.recruiting subjects, probably through newspaper ads.
2. Praying people respond and I get subjects.
3. assessing potential subjects to see whether they have binge eating disorder.
4. administering a small battery of assessments to subjects
5. Overseeing a 10 week yoga class and running a cognitive behavioral group after yoga with half of the participants.
6. readministering assessments.
7. Crunching numbers.
8. Writing up my results
9. Making any changes my committee recommends.
10. Defending.
THere you have it. A doctoral dissertation in 10 easy steps.
Found out that I had low estrogen so now I am on birth control pills to regulate my hormones. Pros: hormones are regulated. Cons: Gained weight. Pros: Gained weight in boobs. Cons: gained weight everywhere else, too. Pros: haven't made myself puke in a while, although I'm not sure how much this has to do with my estrogen level.
So I read in the newspaper that laptops are not made for the heavy use they get as home computers and can overheat. The author suggested putting a cake cooling rack under your laptop to help keep heat from building up. I had a cooling rack downstairs in the kitchen so I am giving it a try. Makes typing kind of bouncy.
Then I found out I need to submit applications for my internship which will start next August by Thursday, so that put the dissertation on hold for a while.
Have been so busy actually working on my dissertation that I kind of forgot I had a blog about the whole thing. It is definitely a daunting process, this year-long paper. I have still not even handed in my proposal and I have over 50 pages written. But I need the first 3 chapters done to hand in the proposal, and I'm getting there, so I have hope. It's kind of cool, actually: the first 3 chapters sets up the whole thing. Chapter one is your idea and why you think it's a good one. Chap 2 is a literature review of all that has been done on the topic already. For me that means a review of existing treatments for binge eating disorder and a review of how yoga has been used as a treatment for mental illness.
Chapter three is methods-- how you plan to get your data. This is the part on which I have done the least work so far. I have to get a yoga teacher who is willing to work with me for little to no money. I have to find a studio that will let me use their place. I need to come up with the assessment instruments I will give my subjects before and after the intervention (yes, these cost money as well). I need to figure out how I will crunch the numbers once I've gotten all of my data. Unfortunately (more for him than me), the guy at my school who helps students out with all of this just had a heart attack. Which doesn't make me feel any better about all this number crunching stuff.
Once you've gotten all that finished you submit to the IRB (institutional review board), and then, once you get approved, off you go on actual data collection and the real fun starts. For me this means:
1.recruiting subjects, probably through newspaper ads.
2. Praying people respond and I get subjects.
3. assessing potential subjects to see whether they have binge eating disorder.
4. administering a small battery of assessments to subjects
5. Overseeing a 10 week yoga class and running a cognitive behavioral group after yoga with half of the participants.
6. readministering assessments.
7. Crunching numbers.
8. Writing up my results
9. Making any changes my committee recommends.
10. Defending.
THere you have it. A doctoral dissertation in 10 easy steps.
Found out that I had low estrogen so now I am on birth control pills to regulate my hormones. Pros: hormones are regulated. Cons: Gained weight. Pros: Gained weight in boobs. Cons: gained weight everywhere else, too. Pros: haven't made myself puke in a while, although I'm not sure how much this has to do with my estrogen level.
So I read in the newspaper that laptops are not made for the heavy use they get as home computers and can overheat. The author suggested putting a cake cooling rack under your laptop to help keep heat from building up. I had a cooling rack downstairs in the kitchen so I am giving it a try. Makes typing kind of bouncy.
Then I found out I need to submit applications for my internship which will start next August by Thursday, so that put the dissertation on hold for a while.
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