Super-meet

The Kennedy team got their butts kicked today at the super-meet held at our own course! I shot my highest score ever with a 127. One of the top girls from Jefferson named Megan Furnish shot an even par- 72.

I hope someday I can get better at golfing and shoot under 100!

Our next meet is next Monday and it is 18 holes at Pleasant Valley Golf Course.. I hope I can redeem myself.





Here are a couple of pictures. I have heard that this course has a lot of wierd turns, so I am up for the challange! Let's hope its not super rainey and dreary Monday. I think that could be part of the reason why I did so bad at Ellis was because it was wet, rainy, cold, and I had to be all bundeled up. I definitely golf best when I am wearing shorts and our polos, have sunglasses on, and I'm getting a tan. If the sun is out I feel more like talking and having fun with the group of girls I am golfing with.

In the middle of 18 holes at Ellis is was so frusterated that I started tearing up. The girls I was with tried to comfort me but I was really upset. When coach Bush came up I acted really mad and I am sorry about that.

I think one of the most important things to a golfer is their mental game. If I get upset in the middle of a round it is really hard for me to shake it off. I think I need to realize that even the pros sometimes shoot high numbers on a hole, and they probably did it a lot when they first strated. I have only been golfing for a year, so I can't be great right away.

Bushy always tells us to just shake it off and move on to the next hole. Wayyyy easier said than done. She also gets upset when we think a course is going to be hard. One day I was talking about Hunters Ridge and complaining about the back nine. She practically yelled at me because I was siking myself out before I even got on the course.

Another trick to help your mental game is NOT adding up your scorecard, as Bush tells us. For me, I add it up as I go and look at the score on every hole so I have a goal in mind for the next hole. If I have 92 on the 17th hole and I am shooting for less than 100 I have to get an 8 on the last hole. Actually when I think about it, if I do that I end up getting like a 10 on the hole anyways. Even with the bad luck I contine to do it. I just decided that at Pleasant Valley I am not even going to look at what I have shot, not add it up, and don't set goals for holes. I am going to just simply play the best golf I can play and see how it goes.

Wish me luck!

The Colbert Report

This Colbert Report, all of these videos make me laugh!

College golfing

I am overjoyed when I get an article about me or one that features me in the Metro Sports Report. Not Ali though, she was really upset after this article was written about her. She talked to me the next day after I commented on how good it was and told me that the first like makes her angry. She is trying to get a scholarship for college for her golf game, and hates that the first line said she is stubborn.
One day my goal is to have an article written about me for bowling. Hopefully next year I can shine and it will happen.
I am excited to see how Ali does the rest of the season, and she still has all of next year.

Here is the article:

Ali Lindo admits she's stubborn.

A lot of golfers would have retired for the day after aggravating a painful knee injury in the middle of their round, but Lindo stayed on the course and limped through the final 11 holes of the Linn-Mar Invitational at Hunters Ridge Golf Course Tuesday in Marion.

Remarkably, the Cedar Rapids Kennedy junior shot an 11-over-par 83 to finish only one shot behind the leaders on a warm, sunny day.

Lindo said she never thought about quitting.

"No. I don't like quitting," she said emphatically, sitting in the clubhouse with an icebag on her right knee. "I had to do that over the summer in a tournament because I got diagnosed with asthma or some kind of breathing disorder, and I just don't like walking off courses."
See? Stubborn.

"Yeah, I'm stubborn in a lot of ways," she said. "That's definitely one of them."

Cedar Rapids Jefferson senior Megan Furnish tied Taylor Roberts and Megan Brewer of Cedar Falls for medalist honors with an 82, but Furnish was not happy with her round. "Not so good," she said. "I played terrible."

Furnish won medalist honors at the CRANDIC meet last week and is 2-for-2 this season at the top of the leaderboard in major events.

Lindo originally hurt her knee in December while participating in show choir at Kennedy. "I was jumping over a box of stairs and I slipped," she said. "I don't know what I did. Neither do the doctors, because they told me nothing was wrong. But if it's hurting, I'm going to go with something's wrong."

Lindo was leaving the seventh green Tuesday when she aggravated the injury.

"I was going down the hill and I slipped, which kind of restarted the pain," she said. "So now my knee hurts and I need to ice it before it swells up again."

She said the knee has bothered her ever since she got hurt in show choir. "Yeah, pretty much," she said. "Whenever I walk too much."

High school golfers can ride a cart between holes, but otherwise they have to walk the course. Hunters Ridge measures 5,090 yards for the women from the gold tees, so she walked roughly two miles Tuesday on the rolling course after aggravating the knee injury.

"I didn't start limping until the back-9, because it started to hurt a ton more," she said. "I didn't have any ice when we came around the turn (after nine holes), so it got worse as the holes went on."
Lindo described a stabbing, throbbing pain. "A little bit of both," she said. "It stabs in the back (of the knee) and then throbs if I don't put ice on it after a while."

Doctors have taken an MRI, but found nothing wrong. Still, it hurts.

"I've been taking Advil pretty much daily to keep the pain away, and I didn't have any in my bag today," she said. "I'll be prepared from now on."

Lindo planned to seek expert advice when she got home. "I'll probably just talk to my dad, because he's a doctor," she said. "I'll just talk to him and see if he thinks anything is wrong. I'll probably just end up icing it for a couple of more weeks."

Lindo finished third at the CRANDIC meet last week with a 75 at Airport National and tied for fourth Tuesday with MJ Kamin of Washington with her 83. She said she's improved significantly from last season when she shot mostly in the high-80's to mid-90's.

"Last summer I played in tons of tournaments," she said.

Lindo was satisfied with her 83, considering she played half the round in pain.

"I could have shot a lot worse. I could have shot better," she said philosophically. "I was trying not to put too much pressure on it when I was walking between holes or between shots, because I wanted to be able to put pressure on it when I actually swung."

The Cedar Falls Tigers, who won the Class 4A state title last year, ran away with the team championship Tuesday with a four-girl score of 335. The Linn-Mar Lions, who placed eighth at the state meet in 2011, finished second at 379. Emma Lorenz led the Lions with a 91.

Running- pole vaulting

So I was told to blog about running sometime but I know nothing about running. However I know a lot about funny videos so here are some pole vaulting funny videos. Honestly I would probably go to some track meets if we had pole vaulting as one of the events.

I HATE running with a passion and I don't know if I will ever be a runner.

First of all, this body is out of shape. I probably couldn't even run to my car in the parking lot without gasping for air. Maybe I should start up a plan where I start walking, then run when I can, then walk. Eventually I will be able to run for longer distances. And longer, and longer, and longer! My goal is to complete a marathon by the time I turn 20!

YEAH RIGHT.

I would love for this to happen, and it actually happened in my dream last night. I was working out more and more each day and eventually worked my way up to running miles at a time.

The second thing that stands in my way is food. To be a legit runner you have to eat healthy. Eating Panch burritos once a week is probably not the best protien food for someone trying to be a marathoner. (Is that even a word?) I can never give up my love for food, which is why I will never be really fit, which is why I will never be a runner.

As you can see the issue just progresses, and one day I will do something about it. That day is not today, but maybe tomorrow, or maybe nexct month. Who knows.

CRANDIC

I am very excited for tomorrow when I get to participate in the CRANDIC golf meet. For those of you that don't know, it stands for Cedar Rapids AND Iowa City so those are the schools that will be there.

The only bad part about this meet is that I actually have to get up earlier than when I would wake up for school on a normal day. I will wake up around 5:30 and start getting all of my stuff together. Then I have to run out by Cedar Rapids Toyota to pick a girl up, and go back across town all the way out towards the Cedar Rapids Airport. Yes, we are playing at Airport National Golf Course which I think is a really bad move.

Airport is definitely the smallest and easiest golf course I have ever played at. It doesn't make sense why they would have one of the biggest meets of the year at such a small golf course. There are actually 27 holes jam packed in just a small area. You can click HERE if you want to go to their website and see the map of holes. The par of this course on each nine holes is only a 33. That means there are a lot of easy and small par 3's and not very many more difficult par 5's. I think that for this meet they should schedule it to somewhere that is a more normal par 35 or 36. Jones, Ellis, somewhere in Iowa city, or even Twin Pines would be better than Airport. Don't get me wrong I am not an exceptional golfer, but I sometimes like a challenge.

The thing that sucks about having the meet at airport is that for most of the holes you shouldn't even use your driver. This is a problem for me because driving is usually my strong point. The holes are pretty short to drive so for most of them you can tee off with your 7 iron or your hybrid clubs.

So it's time to start thinking of my goals today, I have a number of them.

1. Don't suck- Haha the most simplest goal there is. I want to do better than at least one girl at the entire meet today. I really don't want to finish last out of 70 some golfers.

2. Have a fairway on at least 7 of the holes- A fairway is on your first shot, when you drive and it lands in the nice moved area you get to put an F on your scorecard. If you go into the rough, sand, water, or you lose your ball then you can't. This is one of the only paces where having an F is good. I want to have a lot of them today.

3. Don't chip over the green- If there is anything I need to work on most, it is my chipping and putting. Chipping is when you are fairly close to the green, but not on it. You have to hit your wedge and the goal is to get on the green. This is not a far away shot, because that is called pitching. Chipping is very very close to the green. Anyways, most meets I have at least one really bad hole when my score is over a 10. This is because when I try to do the short shots on, I hit too hard and go to the other side of the green. I usually do this multiple times and get really frustrated with myself. Last meet I shot a 12 on a hole because of this. I have practiced my chipping all week at practice so I hope that it pays off today.

4. Score less than 115- It's airport. It's easy. This should be no problem, except for the fact that last time I played here I shot horrible! I'm thinking that if I have a 57 and a 58 that would equal 115 so hopefully I can do better than that for the 18 holes. I have played the entire course before and a lot of it is short, so I hope this can go good.

5. Have fun- I am going to be at this meet for like 7 hours tomorrow. If I don't have fun I might die. I just need to remember that I am out of school, it's going to be a nice day, and I get to be out golfing. One of my favorite parts of golfing for Kennedy is meeting all of the golfers from the other schools. I don't even know how many I have met so far but they are usually always fun to hang with. You get to talk about school and sports and how bad we are at golf and whatever is on our mind. Last meet I sung to my girls that I golfed with the whole time and it was lots of fun. Whatever happens I just have to make the most of it.

Overall I am really excited to golf tomorrow! CRANDIC here we come!

Wish me luck,
Amanda

Golf fail!

Haha this is all of the best golf fails in one little 3 minute video. I honestly can't stop laughing. I actually wouldnt be suprised if one or more of these happened to me someday!

It is a good thing they don't let under 18 year olds drive carts, because I would be doing this!

Soccer

I have watched this probably 50 times and I am still laughing! I kind of realized that all this blog has come to is funny videos, but that is what I do best.

I have never played soccer in my life, but I do remember getting a bloody nose in 5th grade because I was kicked straight in the face with a soccer ball. I wonder if this guy got a bloody nose too? Because he was definitely dropped straight to the ground!

This video totally makes my day a little better, and it is sad that I love to watch other peoples pain, oh well. At least I sort of know what he is feeling. Only I'm sure he didn't start crying and run to his school nurse.

Diets

I have decided that I need to start becoming more fit.
According to Yahoo.com the only 5 diet rules you need are the following:

1. Snack on almonds When salty cravings strike, bypass the pretzels or popcorn. In a study of 65 men and women who were following a low-calorie diet, California researchers found that those who noshed on the nuts shrank their waistlines nearly 50% more than dieters who didn't eat them, despite consuming the same number of calories. Likewise, Spanish researchers found that even without increasing exercise, a diet enriched with monounsaturated fatty acids (aka MUFAs, found in foods such as almonds and avocados) decreased the accumulation of abdominal fat, compared with a carbohydrate-heavy diet, which increased it. 

2. Fill up on fiber "When you slow digestion, you slow the delivery of glucose [blood sugar] to the bloodstream," says Marie Savard, MD, author of The Body Shape Solution to Weight Loss and Wellness. "That means less insulin is released, and with lower insulin release comes lower visceral [belly] fat storage." In a study of more than 2,900 adults, those who ate the most fiber weighed less and had lower insulin levels and slimmer waistlines than those who ate the least. Aim for at least 25 g a day from such foods as vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils, brown rice, and whole grain bread, cereal, and pasta. 

3. Stay satisfied with protein Gram for gram, protein has the same number of calories as carbs (and half that of fat), but takes longer to digest, so you feel full longer. It also seems to help lower levels of the hormone ghrelin, which is known to stimulate appetite. In a Danish study of 60 men and women, those following a diet that included 25% of calories from protein lost nearly twice as much fat after 6 months than those eating a diet with 12% protein. Include a serving of lean protein with each meal and snack-eggs for breakfast, a turkey sandwich for lunch, low-fat or fat-free yogurt or milk for a snack, and grilled fish and vegetables for dinner.


4. Skip the sweetener In a 5-week study by Purdue University researchers, rats given unlimited access to artificially sweetened yogurt consumed more calories, gained more weight, and packed on more fat than those that ate sugar-sweetened yogurt. Researchers believe artificial sweeteners may hinder your body's ability to regulate calories based on taste, so you end up overeating. Go with a little bit of natural sweetener, such as raw sugar or honey, instead.


5. Dump one high-cal item from your diet Exercise works best when you don't offset your hard work with empty calories. By eliminating just one high-calorie item from your daily diet, such as a large latte, or substituting cereal and low-fat milk for a bagel and cream cheese, you can easily reduce your intake by 250 calories.



My diest rules are:
1. Don't eat breakfast- it makes me sick and there are no good breakfast foods

2. Have dessert after every meal- uhmm can you say chocolate?

3. Have multiple after school snacks- chips and dip is the best!

4. Eat out at least twice a week- because high schoolers are busy people!

This is the reason I am overweight and not fit. My family has started a diet and my dad now goes to the gym every morning. Hopefully my family as a whole can become healthier and fit. We will see how it goes and update later!

Bowling fail!

I have had my fair share of fail moments, but nothing like this!

This happened to Josh Blanchard, at a tournament in Las Vegas. If you are embarassed to fall at a bowling alley where like 20 people are watching, imagine doing it on live TV! This video will probably haunt him forever, and maybe his back will haunt him forever too!

My most embarassing moments in bowling happened once when I was like 7 and once this year.

When I was 7 one of my friends' bowling ball got stuck in the gutter and I decided that I was going to be an excellent helper and get it out for her. Without thought I walked out onto the lane and I guess I forgot that they had oil on them. I got a couple steps in but then instantly fell right on my butt. I started crying and my bowling coach on the league came out and helped me up. Everyone around me stopped bowling and was watching me.

The second most embarassing moment happened this year at the state bowling tournament. I ended up being one of the top 10 girl bowlers that day and got to bowl an extra game after the team competiton was done. After the teams, all of the spectators gather around a set of lanes that the top 20 bowl on, ten guys and ten girls. We got some practice shots then started our games.

I was seeded 4th going into the top ten because my first two games were really good that day. My first frame I went up there and was shaking like crazy because so many eyes were on me. My first frame was a spare, not bad. Then the rest of the girls went and I was up for my second frame. I took my backswing, and as I came forward I released my ball really wrong... MY BALL WENT STRAIGHT INTO THE GUTTER!

At this point I was mortified. I just wanted to turn around and cry because the whole alley let out a big gasp. The seconds felt like hours while my coach was trying to calm me down. On top of that, the college scouts that had been looking at me were sitting right behind the lanes and just looked at me in dissappointment. This was the worst feeling in the world and my game never recovered. I think I only had a 165. TERRIBLE!

I hope to go to the state tournament again and redeem myself because that moment was the worst. I ended up finishing 6th which is not too bad considering there are a ton of girls bowlers in the state. In the end, I was happy with what out team and I did that day and I hope we get the chance to do it all again.

Pess Conference

Here are the news conferences as Peyton Manning was introduced as a Bronco! They are part 1, part 2, and part 3!