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fluteanjel
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Name: Angela
Country: United States
State: Florida
Metro: Panama City
Birthday: 8/12/1980
Gender: Female
Interests: Baking/cooking, Music and the flute, FITNESS and inspiring others to be as fit and healthy as they can be, the Bible, my amazing husband Joe, massage therapy, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais and Body Mapping, singing, riding motorcycles, playing tennis and volleyball, rock climbing, swing dancing, encouraging others, laughing.
Expertise: Making people laugh, music, fitness and God (not expert, but a work in progress, as in He's working on me), making a daily idiot out of myself - not always on purpose - but at least it gives others hope.
Occupation: Military
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
3/8/2005
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| Soooo much has changed since that last post! Tourist season is here and with it come, you guessed it, tourists. I don't know what happens when people leave their home towns and visit somewhere else, but I think their brain cells take a vacation, too. You see people doing, saying, eating and WEARING things they would never do,say,eat, wear at home. For example, it's 9:30 AM and I get people coming into Smoothie King asking when the Ice Cream place next door opens. Then they ask if we have ice cream. Wow. Would you go to an ice cream place at 9:30 AM at home? Nope. They also think they have to identify themselves to the world as tourists. This takes place in the driving of scooters, funny looking golf carts and really loud, brightly colored T-shirts proclaiming a nearby restaurant or some obscene saying that for some reason (because they're on vacation) they think people will think it's clever/funny.
Oh yeah, and if I have to hear "where are your regular smoothies?" or "can I have a small strawberry?" one more time, I think I'm going to scream! People constantly come up to the counter and do all kinds of stupid things. Let me amuse you :)
1) wait in line for an obscenely long time, thus giving them ample time to look at the board which lists all the smoothies and their possible creations, yet when they get to the front of the line, they still look at me and say "I want a small strawberry banana smoothie". If you had read the board, you'd know that there are at least 5-7 strawberry banana smoothies. But I'm sorry, you forgot how to read on vacation.
2) Even after waiting in line for so long and seeing multiple people try to pay me at the ordering station where there is no cash register, and hearing me tell the people in front of them to take the receipt to the next register where they will pay, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM will try to pay me at the ordering station and then look around our tiny store wide-eyed and ask where the next register is. 5 feet to your right. You can't miss it...
3) 98% of people lose their receipts from one register to the next. It's 5 feet. How this black hole magically appears, I have yet to figure out. Especially after I tell them to take the receipt to the next register, most will wad it up, throw it away, put it in something or somehow, lose it.
4) At least 2-3 people a day come in and ask for a small scoop of ice cream. The ice cream that's listed on the board is listed as an extra that you can add to a smoothie. We don't sell ice cream by itself. This is not a deterrent, most people (especially old ones) still try to get us to sell them ice cream. Then they looked shocked when we say we only sell smoothies.
5) we won't include the funny things people wear into the store. Oh yes I will......loud T-shirts that say "PANAMA CITY BEACH" in neon letters, just in case we forget where we are. Pajama pants and holey t-shirts. swim suits...and the people are still dripping wet from the ocean (ever heard of a towel?)
Other stuff in life:
I've got another job at the Vitamin Shoppe. Was working up to 4 extra days a week, now it's down to one day, which is great because I still get to help people, get a little extra paycheck and get the discount too! I'm up to 6 students now on Mondays, which is my limit. Glad for it too!
Never heard back from Portland. Not a single word. What gives?
Being healthy and training/eating has taken over a large part of my life. I'm getting much closer to finally being done with my personal trainer certification and I have learned so much in the last few days! Did you know that you can physically get fatter if you don't drink enough water? Seriously, the fat will go to your liver and from there it will be stored as fat instead of burned for fuel if you don't drink enough water to facilitate it being burned. You have to drink water for the fat in your body to be burned as fuel! Didn't know that...
I've also found out that if you want to lose weight/bodyfat, besides drinking tons of water and really upping the weights and cardio, do plyometrics and eat A LOT! Not just anything, but eat lots of protein. I was recently on a diet to drop my bodyfat and I was eating 4-6 oz. of orange roughy 3-4 times a day at each meal, with up to 10 egg whites a day, 1 can of rinsed, drained tuna a day, lots of oatmeal and veggies. Couple all that together with vitamins, training REALLY hard and making sure you EAT (you really have to eat a lot) and drinking up to 2 gallons of water (that's not a misprint!) you will get lean. I'm excited that I recently got the leanest I have ever been, dropped my weight to below my goal weight of 115 (was down to 114.6) and am now going into what is known as "off-season". Basically, the next 7-9 months (probably 7) will be spent "bulking" or building muscle. So while I'm slowly bringing my calories back up to reset my metabolism, I will eventually be eating a lot more (15-19x my bw) and lifting super heavy in the gym. I'm so stoked to get strong and build big muscles that are going to give me a great symmetrical look. Not only that but when I pack on the muscle, the next time I diet down, it will be so much easier to stay lean! So my hard earned muscles will finally show and my body will be a strong, healthy and God-willing long living house for God to live in! I've wanted to have rock hard muscles for ever and definition that shows (as in my arms look cut when I'm not flexing) and I think that will definitely serve as motivation and encouragement for my future clients.
By the way, I have developed a full blown obsession with gourmet peanut butter! You've GOT to check these places out! www.ilovepeanutbutter.com I have already completely finished the dark chocolate peanut butter and am 2 tablespoons away from finishing the cinnamon raisin swirl pb and I definitely am wanting to try their white chocolate peanut butter! We're making a special trip to The Fresh Market in Destin for that very thing! The other two places that I'm all drooling over are www.pbloco.com (chocolate chip cookie dough pb!!!!) and www.futtersnutbutters.com The first two have actual cafes/restaurants where you can order different pb concoctions!! The last one has amazing butters made from different types of nuts and mixed with stuff like chocolate, coffee, etc. The great thing about this is that they are all natural, no added sugars or trans fats!! YES!
Other news, Joe lost his job in May. Sam's fired him, and it was really dirty. He got set up! God is good though and we were allowed to still go on our really fun cruise with my parents - it was sooo much fun! We had a ball with them. I hope everyone who reads this has a great relationship with their parents. I think the world of mine, love them to death and think they are the best parents ever! Yeah, I'm probably biased, but so what? Doesn't everyone want to grow up to have parents that they can be friends with when they leave home?
God blessed Joe with a new job at Target just a month later. He's working in the back room stocking and unloading trucks and he loves it. He's got a great boss who's a good friend, he works from 4-12 PM so he's got the whole day off, and while he took a pay cut of half of what he was making, from salary to hourly, the stress is so much less and he really likes it. Praise God that he has this job!
So to summarize: I work full time at Smoothie King (by the way I got promoted to manager....really just meaning that I have the authority to boss people around now and I get paid $1 more an hour), I teach 6 students Monday afternoons, I work another job one to two days a week at Vitamin Shoppe where I LOVE getting to help people learn how to take care of their bodies, be healthy and lose weight and I pretty much have weekends free, which is great because I need the rest! I get up at 5 AM every day to workout before SK and on the weekends I cook all my food for the week. The biggest hassle about living this "bodybuilding" lifestyle is that while I don't mind eating every 2 hours, or even cooking the food, is the measuring and portioning out the right amount of food for everyday. It's not like I can just throw together a sandwich or casserole and take whatever, it's got to be 4-6 oz. of fish, exactly 1/2 cup oatmeal, etc. That's a pain in the rear, but you know what? I've seen better results from doing it and during the week it's sooooo nice to not have to think about what I'm going to eat. It's right there, on my plan and in my fridge. I'm almost done with my personal trainer certification. I haven't done much with music lately and that makes me so sad. There's nothing to be done around here! I will hopefully be putting on a recital this fall, but I've got to get some music for that and I have no idea what I'll be playing....
God bless you all and I hope SOMEONE updates their xanga at some point, because I have no idea what's going on in anyone else's life!
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| So I've noticed that of my subscriptions to xangas, nobody updates! So, since I am a lousy person to talk to on the phone, and I don't get on Facebook everyday to see what's up....I have no idea where everyone is or what they're doing! What's terrible is that I fall into this lot just as much as everyone else! *hangs head in shame*
So to rectify this situation, here's an update on Mrs. McCuiston's life:
I feel like I'm totally at a dead end with my music "career" in Panama City. The quotations are completely intentional because I don't feel like teaching three students a week and playing in the community orchestra is a career. I have tried and tried and TRIED to get in with people who do weddings in the area, and they're either rude, don't return my phone calls, or say they'll put me on the sub list, but I've never heard anything. I did meet a wonderful harpist from Albany, GA who is totally excited about doing weddings and gigs with me - problem is, we can't get any and we have no repetoire because, ahem, she lives in Albany. Just writing about it makes me realize I need to get my butt in gear and start doing the work to do this on our own. I need: 1) business cards 2) photo shoot - head shot 3) repetoire and pratice time with the harpist. Oh yeah, and money to do all of that. :) I feel like I'm kind of at a dead end as well because I can't really apply for any jobs. To explain: I'm underqualified to be a professor (only because I don't have a doctorate!), it's really hard to get anyone in PC to bring me in to do clinics or teach lessons because, well, they just don't care. They've got the laid back, beach attitude that is satisfied with mediocrity. I haven't auditioned for any orchestras because even if I won any of the positions and we had to move to that area, they wouldn't pay me enough to justify Joe losing his job as assistant manager and taking a lower position, even though I'd be making more money, so I'm not auditioning because it costs money to apply and travel to audition and if I'm not going to take the job anyway, why bother? So I have nothing to practice on top of that. I HATE that.
So because music has stalled in my life *sniff sniff* I've let my other hobby/interest in fitness take over my life. I keep forgetting to study for my fitness certification, but I am still working on it! I've started a bodyspace site on bodybuilding.com and I've been talking to a lot of people on there, trying to figure out how to do my first competition.
I digress. I DESPERATELY want to compete. I know I have the discipline, desire and ability to do it and, I feel, do well! However, money is the problem. I want to find a competition close to me, but they are natural shows (meaning no drugs, which I'm largely fine with, but I like taking some fat burners and don't know enough to know if anything I'm taking is banned. I don't believe in steroids, so that's not an issue, but some of these people are fanatical!) and they are expensive! With natural shows, not only do you have to pay for membership, you have to pay entry fee AND drug testing fee. The show I'm looking at doing on June 14 would cost me $140 for all of that! Ok, so say I did that, on top of all that,I need to buy a figure suit which starts around $160 and can easily over $500 and even into the thousands, even for a two piece! And then there comes the cost of food, supplements, shoes, tanning, waxing and learning how to pose. I would also really love to hire someone to do my training and nutrition for me, to take me right through my first competition, since I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm looking at probably another $300+. I just don't have that kind of money! :( Here's the thing, to compete, I have the muscle I need, I just need to drop my bodyfat. I'm at 20% right now and to compete I need to be close to 10% or so. It's doable, for sure, but I feel like I need someone to coach me, walk me through it and encourage me AND make out my nutrition plans so that I WILL drop the bodyfat, because I've never done that and I don't want to sacrifice my hard earned muscle along with the fat just because I don't know what I'm doing. I wish where I worked out that I could hire a trainer on the super cheap - but the Navy doesn't do that. :) It would also be great to have a workout partner, or at least a friend that I could keep in touch with to help me keep on track, etc. It's super hard to do this alone. It's super hard to explain to your friends why you can't go out to eat with them, or you have to bring your own food to the restaurant because you have to eat your chicken breast and steamed veggies, becausee the restaurant is sure to mess it up and you'll be tempted by the bread basket. Grrr...
Enough of the gloom and doom! :) I applaud you if you've all actually read this far. In good news, I have taken a job at Smoothie King - one of my all time favorite places. I really believe in their entire mission - to make healthy food and snacks for people and bring a healthier lifestyle to the public. The fruit is natural, some of it is whole fruit, the rest are juice concentrate, we can take out the sugar, we add protein to almost all of it and I believe in that! It's great to make smoothies for people and talk to them about living a healthier life! Just for the record, my favorite smoothie is a Gladiator smoothie with strained strawberries and pineapple and a scoop of peanut butter (it's natural pb, no sugar added, yummy!) it's sooo good and it's got 45g protein to boot! :) I love that we have really fun new exotic superfruits like Mangosteen, Acai and Goji and even Pomegranate. They all are loaded with antioxidants and are really healthy for you. Love it!
On top of that, Joe and I are taking a cruise with my parents! Kind of like a double-date vacation. We've been talking about takin g a vacation with my parents since we got married and we decided on a cruise. We're cruising out of Tampa on May 25 and going cruising for a week in the Carribbean. We're going to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize and Honduras. Our itinerary: http://www.carnival.com/Itinerary.aspx?embkCode=TPA&itinCode=GMW&groupInd=&shipCode=LE&durDays=7&subRegionCode=CW
Yay!! I can't wait! Joe and I actually managed to get the room right next to mom and dad...not sure how I feel about that, however, it's got an extended balcony, so that's way exciting!
Right now I'm in TN till Wednesday. I had to come up Sunday to do a medical screening and we have AT days Saturday through Tuesday and it not only was expensive, it didn't make sense to drive back to Florida and then back again, even though I'm missing work. So I'm staying at the parents house and I'm bored to death! I need to be working to help pay for this cruise, save for the piccolo and mostly, find a way to pay for my competition! Oh wait, I have to settle on one first....
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| I just figured I'd update, since it's 2008 and all.
I got the first $1k for enlisting Joey into the Army and used $515 of that to enroll in a personal fitness trainer certification course. As soon as I finish that (and get my CPR certificate) people will have to pay me for all the advice and encouragement I love to dole out! I'm excited because nont only do I love to work out and see the changes that I can make to my own body when combined with clean eating and the right nutritional choices, I LOVE being able to pass that on to others and witness their own metamorphosis. It's encouragement on top of encouragement.
In the meantime, I'm giving an alumni recital in Cookeville on the 24th and hopefully teaching a masterclass as well. I'm also hoping some of Dr. Martin's students will sign up for lessons with me because, hey, TN isn't exactly a short drive, nor is gas cheap! It's costing me money to do this between gas, car wear and tear, food and paying for the accompanist, I'm out quite a bit! My biggest concern is that I need ONE more piece to put on the recital and I haven't figured that out yet....procrastination at it's finest.
Joe and I celebrated the New Year with an impromptu visit to Orlando Universal Studios. We really didn't plan that, but we got cheap tickets through the military and found a disgustingly good rate at a wonderful Comfort Inn a mile away, so since Joe had two days off back to back and we'd talked about going there forever....we did it. It was great fun to be in the park so late at night and to actually kiss my husband under fireworks at the stroke of the new year! Last year we celebrated New Year's at his mom's in Columbus, just the two of us in the living room, pretty boring, and the year before that, I came back from the family cruise on New Year's Eve. Since I hadn't talked to Joe in a whole week (and we'd been dating for 3 months at that point, practically married, hehe) we talked for hours, all the way until the clock struck midnight in his time zone AND in mine. So we spent New Year's on the phone. And he was telling me a bedtime story. It's funny to think of it, but the year before that, I had no clue who Joe was and here I am, only a few short years later, married to him, living in a town I never expected to live in and living out all my dream jobs so far.
God is good my friends, God is good.
I have also made some new year's resolutions:
1. read the Bible through - in chronological order.
2. Save up for, and buy a Hammig piccolo, yeah baby! :)
3. Reach my goal weight of 115 lbs. or lower and drop my body fat to 15% or lower.
4. Having done that, enter a figure competition
5. Enter the NFA piccolo artist competition and at least make semi-finals, but I want to win!
6. Be featured in a fitness magazine.
7. Become a certified fitness trainer
Those are my goals so far. Not too shabby, right?
I have to say, I'm loving life and loving God! We might have found a church home, finally! There are so many friendly people at the Jenks Avenue church of Christ, so many people our age and it seems like a lot of great opportunities. I'm really excited about that.
I've also started a new workout - it's the one featured in this month's issue of Muscle and Fitness Hers and I have to say, it's kicking my butt! I haven't been sore in awhile, and I love it! Just goes to show that I wasn't challenging myself like I thought I was. I can rapidly see results in my body already, after just one week! My weight is starting to drop, my muscles are filling out and becoming more defined and that leg cottage cheese is going away and being replaced with nice curves. Who knew that besides dropping my caloric intake somewhat and just lifting heavier weights would work so well?
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| So I found an opening for an Assistant Professor of Flute at Portland State University and I'm applying for it. I've read lots of ads for these types of openings, but none of them prompted me to do anything. For some reason, when I read this it made me stop and I felt "hey, I should do this, I CAN do this. This job is for me". I don't know why it feels different but I'm going for it. It says "Candidate will have a Master's (doctoral preferred)..." duh. Don't ALL faculty openings at universities nowadays have that listed? Among the duties are: teaching lessons, running/leading the flute choir, performing with other faculty in chamber recitals and solo recitals and actively recruiting. Y'all know me; I'm good at recruiting! I'm a people person, with good, friendly people skills and I'm persuasive. I"m made for this job!
Now I just have to make myself look really good and have something eye catching to convince them that just because I don't have my doctorate doesn't make me any less qualified for this job. I can do this job. Period. They want to hire me, they just don't know it yet...but they will soon!
Oregon, here we come!
(In the meantime, I'd really appreciate everyone's prayers!!!)
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| So lately I've been feeling burnt out on the gym. Every time I go it takes everything in me to complete what I'm doing and not quit early. No drive, no energy, no motivation, no fun. On top of that, I started feeling funny when doing my cardio. So basically, I had had it, but I forced myself to keep going till the PT test. Well, I drove to TN last Friday and took the PT test Sunday. I did pretty well for not have practiced the specific moves. I maxed out my pushups at 50, managed 52 situps and did my run in 19:36. Let me elaborate... Maybe I gave myself a hernia or something, but my lower abs STILL hurt from those situps, and I don't mean in a good way. It's kinda scary. Why can't the Army go to crunches, which are safer for you? What food can complete 82 situps in 2 minutes? Not me. I made it past my minimum of 45, so I'm happy. As for my run, I was doing really well. I was well on my way to completing the 2 mile in under 18 minutes, which for me is huge because I loathe and detest running and NEVER do it. But, around lap 6 (of 8) I started getting this wicked pain in my left leg that intensified with every running step. It went up the outside of my foot, up my calf, behind my knee and up to my hip. I was literally in tears just trying to finish. It hurt SO bad and I was immensely frustrated because I was so close to seeing just how fast I really could run this thing and suddenly I'm in pain. The PT test was passed but that wasn't good enough for me, I wanted my best. It was my best only in that I got injured, and that was the best I could do. Major Perry diagnosed me as having bursitis. Basically there's a tendon that runs just where I described on the outside of the muscle and whe you overtrain and exercise too much it causes blisters to form on the muscle and that's what I've done. So no exercise for me for the next 10 days. Actually, it's more specifically no cardio or exercises involving legs for the next 10 days. I decided before the PT test though that I was going to take a break from the gym though because I could sense I had been doing too much for too long, and the pt test confirmed it. So I've decided that this entire week I would not work out. I have not seen the inside of a gym since last Thursday morning and the last working out I did was the PT test Sunday morning. It's now Friday and I cannot stand it. I've done a few moves, just to see how I feel and I still don't have quite the energy or interest or motivation to do a really good, focused workout, so I'm going to stick to it and I will continue to not see the inside of the gym until Monday. I am definitely looking forward to it because I love the way I feel when I work out - not only do I have more energy, I feel good about my body, the way it looks, the way it feels, the way it functions and I can eat more! Without a method of expending energy, everything I eat shows up. It's tough, but I am trying to eat less, especially carbs, while I'm resting and just accept things that hey, it's ok to not workout and I'm not any less of a person because I'm not exercising! I'm so excited to be going back to sculpting a hard body though, I can't tell you! I won't be doing any leg exercises until at least next Thursday and no cardio for another week, just to be careful and I'm going to ease back into it, but my upper body is going to be worked good next week. I'll be ready. :) | | |
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