Monday Motivation

Let’s talk Monday Motivation.

Jan Week 1 Motivation-Monday

 

How are we all doing on our goals?

Week 2 here we come!

 

My second GOAL (Sunday Prep is Goal #1) is to track all my physical activity for the week and post it on the Monday following.

 

Goal #2 is Two-Fold (coincidence?)

1. For my accountability!!!

2. For motivation to others.

If it isn’t motivating, just ignore Monday posts for a little while, k? 🙂

Last week my activities were pretty relaxed.  The Turbo Days were mostly just memorizing routines.  I don’t go full out on all the moves when practicing a new Round as my focus is on cueing and proper technique.

 

Jan Week 1

 

The break down is:

1. Time of exercise

2. Type of exercise

3. Length of exercise

I am also in a 60 day Push-Up Challenge.  There are 150 of us participating!  WOW!  The gal who ran my Turbo Certification is in charge of it.

100 pushups a day!

Sound fun?  Email me and I will add you to the group!

 

This week my activity levels increase significantly.  I am ready!

 

Also, I signed up to run my second half-marathon!  Lincoln, NE, May 4th!

Lincoln Marathon

Figuring out how to incorporate a running training plan into my already busy workout schedule will be interesting, but I am determined.

And motivated.

I know several ladies from the Y who are running as well as a handful of gals from a CB running club that I am loosely affiliated with.  My sister – in – law is also signed up!  Super excited for her as this will be her first!

 

Alright friends, what are your fitness goals for 2014?  Let’s hear ’em!

 

best year yet

 

Sunday Prep- Inside The Madness that is My Brain

This week is the beginning stages of a very chaotic two months.  In order to stay ahead, my GOAL is to make Sunday my Prep Day.

As in food prep, clothes prep, work prep, class prep.

Everything.

                     Prepped.

My Turbo Kick classes at the YMCA start up again on Tuesday and Thursday.   Super excited to teach the new Round!

The education class that I am teaching for a local University starts this week as well.  We meet on Monday and Thursday evenings.   Last time I checked the roster I had all new students that I haven’t had before!  Yay for new faces!

I am also training the employee that is taking over my current position so I will be in and out of my office each day, which is good and bad.  I appreciate the gradual transition into my new position but I am also ready to just get going.

Next week I add Turbo classes on Monday and Wednesday, so I figured now was a good time to trial run my prep work.

My week at a glance:

January week 1 prep

 

My plan is to do most meal prep on Sunday, however, the thought of making food on Sunday and not eating it until Friday seriously grosses me out.  Yuck.  So, for now I am prepping through Wednesday.

That idea sits a little better in my overly sensitive belly.

My plan for the times I am away from home:

January week 1 foodprep

Creating a plan is step 1!

Anyway, this morning started at 5am.  No idea why I was up at that time, but I was, so I rolled with it.  First thing: get the fire roaring again in our wood stove.   It is cold as all get-out here in Nebraska!   Champ joined me in front of the fire.

He seriously sat with his face pushing into me for a solid 15 minutes.  Funny dog.

 

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The rest of my morning was spent prepping to teach.

Unfortunately, I was having some technical issues with My Virtual Child.  I am teaching a Child and Adolescent Development course and MVC is an electronic program that allows students to ‘raise’ a child from birth to 18.  The program gives scenarios and asks questions at each month of development.  The students answers impact how their ‘child’ will grow and develop.  It is a pretty cool program when working.

I guess MVC didn’t want to work on a Sunday morning at 6am.  Who knew?   Thank goodness the publisher has a 24/7 help line.  My first call to them was at 6:40am.  I wonder where they are located because I would think a person was nuts if they called me for technical help at that hour.

 

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We were able to resolve all issues this morning and MVC is up and running waiting for my students to register!

I finished up prepping for class around noon.  At that time I ran some errands around town and have since mastered my Sunday Goal of prepping through Wednesday!

This is impressive considering I typically spend 20 minutes each morning trying on and taking off outfits due to my indecisiveness.

And food?  Ya right!  Subway or HyVee more often then not.

Yikes.

This prepping thing will be good for my sanity AND wallet.

M/T/W food:

image

 

M/T/W work clothes and gym clothes according to my schedule:

 

image

 

 

Alright!  Week One, Prepped.

Goal achieved.

Let’s see if I can keep this up every week!

 

Cheers to an exciting week!

 

Do any of you food prep and/or lay out your clothes the night before?

Friday Faves- A Random Sort

These are a few of my favorite things….

You just sang that, didn’t you?

1) Celebrating Friends

One of my besties recently became engaged over Christmas.

So incredibly excited for her! 🙂

Cheers to happiness, the bling bling and enjoying Cloud 9, my friend!

funny-engagement-ring-guys

2) Fridge of Fame

Our fridge is from the dinosaur age. I refuse to buy a new one though until it dies. I’d rather buy clothes, of course. So, I jazz up my fridge with pictures!

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3) San Jacinto Candles

This is my sisters company. Her candles are hand poured with 100% all natural sparkling palm wax. My favorite scents right now are Hot Apple Pie and Dickens Christmas.

Link to her website is above. Her Facebook page link is here!

san jacinto 2

san jacinto

Isn’t she cute? 🙂

  4) Minus the Leather Jacket –Express

A Christmas present to myself. Cute fake leather. Sold.

minus the leather

5) Vegas Dreamin’

5 weeks until VEGAS!!!!!  It will be my first time out there and we are going with a group of friends to celebrate a Birthday!

I plan on zero sleep from the time we land at 10AM Friday morning until we leave at 11AM on Sunday.

Cheers to feeling AWESOME for work on Monday!  YA!

vegas

6) My Keyboard

I am loving having a keyboard again in the house. I like to play a little at night. Calms me. I have a pile of sheet music I recently purchased just waiting for me to tackle. Slow and steady.

I actually never took piano lessons, but I know how to read music so therefore can translate that knowledge to the keys. My mom gave me the ultimatum in 5th grade that I either choose piano or a band instrument. I was so mad at her. I ultimately chose the clarinet. Fun fact: I taught middle school and high school band for a combined 6 years.

Um, thanks mom for forcing me to take up an instrument.  I sure do appreciate it now-a-days! 🙂

20140102-205237.jpg7) Eileen’s cookies

Come to momma. If you’ve never had one, then I sincerely pity you.

They are a must. Get the sugar cookie with frosting.

Seriously, please do yourself a favor and go get one.  Make it part of your ‘cheat day’.

eileen

And that, my friends, wraps up my January 3rd Friday Faves!

cheers

Goals Not Resolutions

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Happy Day TWO of 2014!

Have you set any New Years resolutions?

Have you already broken one?

Come on…. I KNOW you said losing weight was #1 on your list.  Out of curiosity, how many leftover cookies have you eaten so far today? 😉

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The statistics on broken resolutions are pretty entertaining. I think we can all safely say we suck at follow-through.

I believe if we shift our minds from creating mindless resolutions to setting measurable goals, we would be much better off!

Think about it.

Our resolutions always focus on the negative and are far too broad!

I’m going to Lose weight
I’m going to Quit smoking
I’m going to get out of debt

They lack direction, they can’t be measured and they all set you up for failure.

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So, how do we go about setting realistic goals?   I’ve outline a few suggestions below.

Be positive
Most resolutions you create can be tied back to your level of happiness, do they not?  So, let’s create goals that set us up on the right foot.  Instead of  “I’m going to lose weight”  try “I am going to make changes towards living a healthier lifestyle”.   The first goal just sounds so boring and negative.  The second goal is positive and self-reassuring!

Be specific
I’m going to lose weight” is neither specific or positive. Change it to “I am going to make healthier food choices each day”. This gives you wiggle room in your diet. So what if you fall off track and have a piece of cake? Did you at least make one healthy choice in food that day? Then you’re gonna be all right.

Make a schedule
Have a plan. Write it out.  Follow through with it.

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Track your steps
Take the above mentioned plan and track your steps along the way, whether an online food journal like myfitnesspal.com, or on a notepad you carry with you.  However you want to track your progress, do it!  Just make it and follow it.
Be Flexible
What happens if Goal 1 can’t happen?  Say for instance one of your goals was to run a 5K faster then the last race and you are all of a sudden faced with an injury?  Have a Plan B!   So, maybe you can’t run the 5K, but you can walk.  Do it!  Always think about what you can do to alter the goal to make it work for you. 

Repeat: Failing is Not an Option

Right this very moment, where are you at in your life’s dreams and is this where you want to be in a year from now?  Setting goals is all about making a better YOU.   Your goals are flexible, they are not set in stone and you aren’t a failure if you don’t achieve the first goal laid out.  Adjust the goals as you go to best fit the direction you’re headed.  

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I have goals set for 2014 and I plan to fill you in as we move along.  Looking forward to an exciting 2014!

Remember, Be Present in everything you do.  Live in the Moment!  We only get one shot!

Cheers!