Going Back To School

I have been thinking about writing about this topic for months, but I just never actually did it.

Next week I start (another) new phase in my life - university on campus.

A few years ago, I lost quite a bit of weight after finding out from my doctor what I was doing to my body (you can read a little more on my history here).  I found that I loved what I was doing.  I was losing weight, I was taking control of my life!

I had lost over 20kg from eating right and exercising.  Sure it took a while, but I was learning so much!  On more than one occasion I had friends and family tell me to do a shake diet because "you will lose weight faster" - somehow with as little as I knew at the time, I was able to recognise the fact that I wouldn't be able to sustain my weight, let alone learn anything about living a healthy lifestyle.  I had to learn to like fruit and veggies, I needed to learn that not everything out of a packet was good for you and I needed to learn how to read nutritional labels properly.

All of a sudden, friends and family were asking me for advice on how to lose weight (although a few didn't like the "eat healthy and exercise" message! haha!) and I really enjoyed helping people... which lead me to decide to go to university to become a dietician.

Admittedly, it was a hard decision to make... in one sense I felt that I wasn't worthy enough to become a dietician as I didn't feel that my diet was 'perfect' as well as the fact that I hadn't reached goal weight yet.  My friends encouraged me to enrol, as no one's diet will ever be perfect and did it really matter that I wouldn't be the skinniest girl in the class?! Even now, yes, I have put on quite a bit of weight recently, but I need to realise that this does not make me an inferior person and it is ok that I am studying nutrition.

So, I enrolled by distance through Charles Sturt University.  Over the next 18 months I completed a couple of subects, but I found that working full time and studying part time with intensive labs was far too stressful and after talking with B, it was decided that I would switch it around... so as of 2012 I will work part time and study full time at the University of Canberra!

To be honest, I am quite nervous about it all.  I haven't been a full time student for 7 years and it will be interesting to see with how I cope with it all.  I think at the moment my biggest fear is that I will struggle to understand the subject material and that I will be unable to retain that knowlege.  However, I won't know until I try!

Overall I am really looking forward to being able to do this. I miss being a student and I have never been to university, I have only studied at places like TAFE and CIT. I think that this year will be a great adventure!!

So, my subjects for this semester are:

1. Concepts in Biology
2. Chemistry 1A
3. Regional Anatomy & Physiology
4. Psychology 101

One of my biggest challenges during this round of the 12WBT will be managing my time. I hace decided that my workouts will be in the mornings, and I will have uni 2 days a week as well as working 3 days a week. During the other 2 days I will be catching up on lectures and other uni work as well as trying to find some time for myself.  I have spent a couple of hours this morning putting together my calendars to be able to work out my schedule, and so far, it's looking good!