Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

I’m really into food.  And as a result of being in Blacksburg for the first time without a student meal plan, I’ve had to take an alternative route in order to supply my body with loving nourishment.  So I decided to take up cooking this summer – trying a ton of new recipes, and replicating things that I would get at restaurants or see on the Food Network. And so, that’s why there is a category called ‘food’ on my blog – once I get into a real habit of updating the blog, the food photos that I usually just post to Facebook will have a home on the blog, and maybe – if I get real frisky – with the recipes that Kristin and I keep in our cookbook, as well.

But, to get to the point of this blog post, today I decided to watch a movie with a friend. It was a documentary on Netflix and it was about a man that was “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead“. The documentary was actually pretty interesting in the way that it completely focused itself around a man who decided to go on a fast for SIXTY days. He decided to do a fast that consisted completely of juice made with a juicer, which extracted the juice from vegetables and fruit only. He actually ended up losing a ton of weight because of it.

A Breville juicer, the kind that Cross used in his documentary to make his juices for fasting.

I’ve decided that maybe I’ll try my own fast in the future. I don’t know if I could afford living off just fruit and vegetables for as long, especially with how active I am and how much I like to work out, but I know that I would have to get plenty of sleep and have a moderate amount of physical activity simultaneously.  I’m thinking I’d do a 3 day fast, one day off, 6 day fast, one day off, and then a 10 day fast, to kind of build myself up, and see how many pounds I can shed.

No, I don’t think I’m fat, but truth be told it is extremely easy to gain weight as a paraplegic, but extremely difficult to lose it – YES, losing weight as a paraplegic is actually quite difficult, even though people have a misconception of a lot of paraplegics being in this awesome, supreme, physical state from being ‘so physically active’. I would also like to be in a bit better physical shape than I currently am – I’m about 10-15 pounds heavier than I’d like to be, ideally.

The primary form of cardio that I actually have an opportunity to partake in is on an arm bike or what most people call an arm ergometer. It’s really not that practical, though, because the only way that I can do that is if I decide to go to the gym, and obviously if the gym that I’m near has one.  I look for one in every single hotel gym I go to – there’s never been one.  I use the ones here on campus, and at the YMCA back home.

Until last week I didn’t even under know that War Memorial Gym had an arm bike. I know that McComas Gym has one but it’s usually broken, but I discovered that it’s probably of a broken battery. Last week I e-mailed the director of recreational sports here at Tech and expressed my discontent – noting that one of the very first things I did was a freshman was find out what accessible gym options were available to me.  I was originally told that there was only an arm bike in McComas, but it took until post-graduation-undergrad to figure out that that is not true!

We are actually going to be meeting next week with the other individuals throughout recreational sports and with the Services for Students with Disabilities office to try and identify some ways that students with disabilities can work out and basically they told me that they’re willing to put some money towards this effort. My eyes were really opened a couple weeks ago when I had an individual on my campus tour in a wheelchair that asked me what kind of options would be available to him in the gym – and let me tell you this kid was in great physical shape – and I realized that there aren’t a whole lot. I really didn’t know what to tell him.

I’m excited to be an advocate for not only myself but for people who come after me. My mom always told me that, you know, maybe I won’t be able to reap the benefits of the changes that I can make in the world but there’ll always be people that are disabled after me that will be able to read those benefits hopefully they will be very grateful for that.

A sleepless night has turned into productivity.

I just read the final draft of the chapter for Dr. Geller’s book that will be going to the presses in a little under two months.  The book is all about the Actively Caring movement, the science behind it, and how it was transitioned from a theory used predominantly in industry, and was then adapted to higher education.  I simply can’t wait to see this story get published, and to be able to share it with everyone.

My chapter shares about half a dozen actively caring related stories, including my interactions with the First Lady during Tech’s 2012 commencement, as well as the most moving experience that I’ve ever had when receiving – not giving, but receiving, an actively caring wristband.  I can’t wait to share it with you all.  The theme of the chapter is a lot like the TEDx talk that I had my preliminary for about a week ago today – so I’ve decdided to finally stop procrastinating that and write it now. :)

Stay tuned. (:

Virginia Tech’s CAVE

Today, I had a really unique opportunity.  Dr. Alfred Wicks of the mechanical engineering department here at Tech took my scholars and I on a tour of his lab – he works with the Autonomous Vehicle Team, which is a collection of all kinds of students but mainly graduate students who worked to develop a car that could drive itself completely on its own, in any environment.

We got to see all kinds of cool stuff, which was exceptionally interesting to me because I get to talk about Engineering majors all the time, thru campus tours and information sessions, but I love, even more, being able to see their work first hand.  A lot of the work they’ve done has won numerous awards, and I think it’s especially worth noting on my blog because they do a lot of great work for the military – such as being contracted by the Marines and the Army to build autonomous vehicles that can pick up causalities on the battlefield and bring them back to any given point. Impressive to say the least.

Enjoy a few pictures from today’s visit.

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Samanta Wharton-Luper

If you haven’t been able to by reading my posts, I’m really into my friends.  One of my biggest goals in recent memory was during last summer when I tried to cement friendships with people that I knew I wouldn’t physically be around a lot in the near future.  I knew that I was going to, most likely, spend my summer this year in Blacksburg, and not Fredericksburg as I had for the past seven or so years of my life.

I thought it was important to take the time to cement those relationships before a lot of big life changes began to happen, for everyone, as people graduate from school and go in different directions with their lives.  The most ironic part about that, in this context, is that one my very best friends doesn’t even live in Fredericksburg, but that’s where we met.

Samy and I met through Rachel Wood, another long time close friend of mine, when I was in the …  ninth grade?, and Samy was in the tenth. It was Rachel’s birthday, August 19th, and we both ended up at her party. I remember being really smitten by her Argentinian accent, amongst other things – and from there, the rest really was history.

Some of our most fond memories that kind of built our friendship – ones that we recall like EVERY time we get together – would be eating lunch in high school together, and usually skipping class to go to other lunch shifts in order to do so. When we would get our schedules for the next year, the very first thing we would always do is check and see if we ever had the same lunch shift – and I don’t think we ever did! But we always found a way to share lunch together, and then make up silly excuses for why we weren’t in class when we were supposed to.

So, fast forward a few years and Samy moves to North Carolina soon after she graduates from high school, with her family. And we fell out of a contact just a little bit over the next year or two.  She got married, and unfortunately her wedding day was on the same day as my sister’s college graduation – what luck, right? So, I didn’t get to go, but it was okay (even though Samy will never let me forget it).  Once I got settled in at Tech though, we’ve been able to make a habit out of visiting each other at least once per semester, since Charlotte really is only about 2ish hours from Blacksburg.

One of the more fun trips was probably going to the ACC Championship with her and Julianne in junior year, as well as coming back for the same game the next year and seeing her a little bit.  Then, I turned 21, and with that came a night that she would never let me forget – downtown Charlotte, Epicenter, Whiskey River. Yeah, ‘nuff said.  And then the lovely nights spent in Blacksburg, enjoying VT.

Her family has made a solid impact on me too – her mom is one of the strongest women I know and like another mom of my own, always opening her home to me whenever I come to visit.  And watching her little sister grow up over the years makes me feel old – even though I’m only 21! Add that to all of the memories and laughs we’ve shared over the years, and I can look at a friend who I not only respect but really love.

Strong relationships are something I think everyone should pride himself or herself on – it’s always rewarding to look at a friendship and realize that the strength of the relationship is a product of the amount of energy that you put into it.

Right now, I sit in the back seat of this car, we are travelling to New York & New Jersey for a weekend trip – good times to be had, I’m sure.  Can’t wait for more. Love you Samy. :)

 

Sitting in a meeting with my interns…

Flat tire. What. the heck. I wasn’t even moving – the thing just burst spontaneously.

This is getting old.

But in better news, my interns are really reflecting on the trip to the SAEOPP Conference,
and I’m happy they enjoyed it so much & got so much out of it. :) When I think of a career
in Higher Education and mentoring students, it’s 2 hour long debriefs like this that make
it all worth it. From the sessions that they enjoyed to the ones that they really thought
could have been improved, there’s just nothing like being engaged with students who are
realizing that they just cashed in on a humongous opportunity through this program.

Flat tire.

For some reason this is a very popular question that people ask me – do you ever get flat tires? Yes, yes I do. And when it happens it is a huge pain in the butt. I mean I’d probably compare it to spraining an ankle or something like that. But, for my local business shout out of the day, I would like to give a lot of complement to East Coasters Bike Shop in Blacksburg. Every single time there is something wrong with my wheelchair, I can come here and trust that these guys are going to hook me up, even though wheelchairs are not in their repertoire. From tires, to tubes and valves and everything in between – class acts hooked me up with a repaired tire today. :)

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Road Trip to Atlanta

Currently enjoying a road trip to Atlanta with all of my interns and let me tell you it is quite the experience so far. From losing a van, to jamming to Call Me Maybe, to just trying to survive … Let’s just say I’m happy I’m a passenger with an iPhone charger and I can’t wait to get into downtown and watch the game tonight, go out on the town to decompress a little bit, and get excite for tomorrow!

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Best Friends.

I’m not one for burning bridges.  For the most part, I’ve always had the same close group of friends, no matter where I move and no matter where my life takes me. One of the most forefront, trusting, reliable, and connected people in my life has been Hollyann Suellen Arnold.

We met during freshman year of high school, our friendship most strongly forming during Honors English in Ms. Antinori’s class. We were always in touch though, over the years, going from high school, to graduating, to different university’s, back home together in Fredericksburg during the summers, and numerous visits in between. Numerous relationships for both of us, all kinds of different personality and physical changes, but somehow, when I realy need someone to talk to – someone to tell me just how much I’ve messed up, or someone to let me know how awesome things are – I know that she is always there for me.

There aren’t many people, especially people so fundamentally different from me, that I never get tired of. People that I can be around all day, and not really ever think twice about it. Someone that I could go to a Drake concert with, but also sit around watching Chopped while she paints her fingernails.
Over the years, Hollyann has become one of the best friends that I’ve ever had. Today, she’s coming to visit for the night, and I’m mostly just excited to grill shit and go to TOTS Tuesday with her. At the end of the day, I’ll alwyas remember that there really is no one else like her in y life.