Always A Work In Progress

This semester already seems like it is flying by and I have soooo much to get done. I feel like my classes are going well and that I have been able to retain the information really well. My Introduction to Planning Therapeutic Diets class feels like it will prepare me for what I will be facing in clinical settings when I have to work with a team of health professionals who are all trying treat a patient. In my opinion, it should be a required course for pre-med students. My Sports Nutrition class is pretty cool just because it is of personal interest to me. I wish that I had known some of this information when I played basketball, I could have taken so much better care of myself. It does help me look at what I feed my 8 year-old in a different way though because he is an athlete and will likely continue to be one through adulthood. Biochemistry is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. She takes her time explaining processes and allows us to do activities that really help us learn the information. I suppose it shows that I actually did keep some gen chem and biology information in my brain. Sometimes it just seems like it all falls out at the end of semester. My Cultural Aspects of Food is pretty interesting as well. It's online which is nice but at the same time, it makes the work more tedious. The class I TA is pretty awesome. It was one of my favorite classes and I actually enjoy reviewing the information and seeing how it resonates in others. My honors thesis is a whole other story.

I have been having the hardest time motivating myself to work on my thesis. So, to explain, I am in the honors college and in order to graduate with honors I need to complete a creative/thesis project. It is similar to a masters' thesis but not as regimented and scientific. We are able to choose any subject that interests us and that we can actually research. I have been working on an obesity prevention program for the last year and a half. I initially decided to become involved because I was interested in the nutrition education portion of the program. We have completed a 6 week pilot of the program and will be expanding to a 12 week program in the spring. The professor who is the head of this program wanted to try a different way of presenting the nutrition education (that I did not like) but it proved to be ineffective. My thesis project is to create the nutrition education for the children but at the same time I want it to be transferable to other settings, not just this program. It is an ambitious project and I essentially have to have the curriculum completed by January, when the program starts. Normally we have a semester and a half to work on our thesis. It sounds like a lot of time but there is a great deal of research and planning that I have to do. Along with the curriculum, I also have to write a proposal that details the statistics that demonstrate a need for a program like the one I am creating. IT'S A LOT!!! I think that is why I have not started actually. I am overwhelming myself with the bigness of the project rather than focusing on the small pieces I have to start with. One piece at a time right?

So aside from school, I have been trying to get myself back into the swing of running and doing yoga on a regular basis. I found that when I wasn't physically active, I felt like garbage and I wasn't motivated to do ANYTHING. It has been really hard waking up at 5:30am everyday but when I run or do yoga in the morning, my entire day is so much better and I feel more motivated to focus on my schoolwork.

I am a work in progress; I am in the progress of working on it. :-)