Other posts on this matter: Everyday Better and Everyday Better: Blogging

I would like to say I’m pretty in shape. When it comes to the Army, that’s part of my job. We get evaluated on our fitness through a simple test of push-ups in two minutes, sit-ups in two minutes, and then a two mile run. The amount of push-ups and sit-ups and the time you have to run your two mile in is based on your age and gender.

You can see what you would score here.

On the female scale for my age, I often ‘max it’ meaning I get the most points possible in each category giving me a 300. But, with changes in the Army with more opportunities for females and my job being combat arms, I expect this ‘female scale’ to go away. I have to score around a 340 on the female scale to come close to a 270 on the male scale. Whether that’s fair or not is a different debate, but it does show a different level of ‘combat readiness’.

My soldiers holding up a tire for a timed competition.

For example, in artillery we have different types of ammo based on what effect you want. If you want a big bang, there’s a type for that, if you want light in the night, we also have one for that. These different rounds have different weights and some weigh more than 110 pounds.

My body weighs 120.

Needless to say, I need someone to help me lift those rounds. There are a lot of people, male or female, that can lift those rounds alone yet have a lower fitness score than me.

I’m not saying that the only reason to get in shape is for my job but I’m also not saying I’m a slacker. I recognize where I want to be fitness wise while acknowledging that I do have a decent amount of accomplishments too.

So, by the end of February I do want to start lifting weights because right now all I do it push-ups or variations of them. I also want to look in the mirror and see muscles on my back and arms and even my abs.

Summer is soon!

Again, with my schedule it is hard to figure out how to do this but I think if I do my mandatory physical fitness Monday – Friday with the Army, which is mostly just running, but also dedicate Monday morning to an hour run then Saturday and Sunday I can do weight training.

I’ve also always wondered about getting a personnel trainer so I might save and do that just because I don’t know how to do free weights while feeling safe at the same time. Plus, it’ll give me motivation to show up because I paid for the service!

Also, no more fast food! Okay, that’s not fair to me I can’t go cold turkey…. only once a week in February and none by March. This means I need to figure out meal prep a lot better. I did it recently for a week and by Wednesday I thought the food was bland and it was unappealing to me. I cooked chicken and pasta dishes and gave myself a salad to go with it.

Ugh.

Tags:

army, everyday better, field artillery, Fitness, food, working out

About

Anne is a Slytherin

There is a list of songs I need to buy that I keep in my iPhone notes. I haven’t bought them left because I have a MacBook Air because I used to have a 10 lb computer from Dell and it would hurt my back walking to my classes on campus so I overcompensated. Now, I have to store my iTunes on an external drive.

Also, I’m lazy and for some reason iTunes seems harder to access than YouTube.

I wasn’t too lazy for Taylor Swift though. She was born on my birthdate and also just really gets me.

If you really want to know me, just listen to the Red album. If you want to know who I want to be, listen to the 1989 album.

I listened to Out of the Woods on repeat non-stop for a week when 1989 came out and was disappointed it wasn’t the jukebox favorite like Shake It Off Was. It’s funny I relate to OOTW so much though because I have never had to have twenty stitches in a hospital room.

Besides Taylor Swift, I also enjoy coffee in my milk but get a kick out of all the fancy drinks you can get at local coffee shops. The more complicated, the better. I’m in the Army though so sometimes I pop caffeine pills. I sadly didn’t discover them until my senior year of college. They are truly game changers. A lot of people say it’s not healthy though? Yet, they tell me this as they sip on Monsters and Diet Coke.

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I’m in the Field Artillery, which is a combat arms branch. I think I talk about that a lot but it consumes about 90 percent of my day-to-day activities.

In college, I did ROTC and I think the most important thing was that I did have a lot of civilian friends. A lot came up to me through my four years and were able to say how they were once afraid the idea of the army but now that they know me, their thoughts have changed. People in the military are just like any other person in a job. That was very important to me. The Army is a subculture but we shouldn’t be a mystery.

What I want the most out of life is to travel with friends.

I met Liz in high school. She was the older cool girl in marching band. I actually can’t remember everything? I do remember her attempts to do NaNoWriMo and that she liked John Green and Harry Potter and that is really my only criteria for initial friendship. Back then; if the sorting hat had been placed on my head, I would’ve been up there for a while deciding if I’m a Ravenclaw or a Slytherin. Since I’m a Muggle, I was able to really test out both houses. Liz is a true Ravenclaw so she let me taste what that is like. I later learned I am truly a Slytherin though but after the war, house ties didn’t have such the stigma they once did so my Slytherin self could still hang out with her.

What I want out of this blog is to become a better and more consistent writer and to push myself more creatively now that I’m out of college. Attending Fordham in New York City was awesome, but now that I’m out of those woods I’m ready for a new start where my brain isn’t doing homework every night.