Inspirational Wednesday

Happy Wednesday folks!!!

So, last night I went home and got into my flannel pants and did nothing all night long! I think every now and then a gal (or guy) is entitled to a night of relaxation and eating ice cream! So, that is what I did! I did not feel guilty! I did not feel anything other than happiness at my relaxing evening!

After my email yesterday, a few people told me that I made them feel guilty. They felt that it was there fault that I did not do the daily workout on Monday. Folks, let's talk about this for a minute. Every person is in charge of their own life. If instead of working out I was supposed to go get ice cream, I would not have let anyone stop me from doing that...so if I let people stop me from working out...that is no one's fault but my own!

We have to stop the excuses! I did not work out because I was doing this...or because they wouldn't let me...or because blah blah...I mean I can think of so many reasons why I shouldn't work out. I don't really enjoy working out! I don't like feeling exhausted, or hot, or sweaty, or anything that comes with working out. But I love the feeling of being done! I love the effect that working out has on me! I love being proud of myself! I love knowing that I did something great for myself...even when I didn't want too. If I'm honest with myself, I do enjoy some forms of workout. Like dance class or Zumba or swimming! Anyway, I can talk myself out of working out every day! You have read my emails, you see how I talk when I'm walking Chandler! If I end up talking myself out of it...then there is no one to blame but myself. When you really want something, there is nothing that can stop you from doing it! This is somthing that I want! I want to wear my pants again! I want to look in the mirror and be happy with what I have accomplished! If I want it...then I will do it!

So, this morning...I got up and I went downstairs and ran! This week you run 3min then walk 2 min. It was rough! But I did it! The last few minutes of the run I had to take at a lower speed...but I'm okay with that! The very last minute was a countdown- I was litterally saying only 60 more seconds. Only 30 more seconds. 15 more seconds, 10, 9, 8, 7...you get the picture. It wasn't easy, but it's done! I did not get up early enough to do the daily workout, but I feel that that is easier to do at any time. It's the run that I dread! But I did it! And I'm happy! And now I feel a little more awake! I'm walking with a little more pep because I did it! Don't let the thought of working out detour you...don't let the excuses turn you away from doing something that is so good for you! Don't start next week, don't start, tomorrow...Start right now! If you are at work, make healthier choices! If you have the chance to take the stairs, do it! Workout for yourself!!! You can do it! You can stick with it! I know some of you out there have already lost weight and are working hard to lose more! You all can do it! You are not hopeless, you are not reaching for something so out of reach...you can do this!!! I believe that you can and you should believe it as well!!!

Friends...

Folks, I have nothing to really report on today.  How lame is that?  I mean, my life seems a bit slow today!  So, I'm going to sit for a moment to think about what I could possibly write...

Thinking...
Thinking...
Thinking...

Okay, so a few weeks ago Curt says to me "When the Bachelor is not on, it's like you have no friends".  He was joking around with me, but it hurt my feelings.  When the TV show Bachelor or Bachelorette is on my friends and I get together every Monday to watch the show.  Sometimes there are a lot of us...and sometimes there only my and my friend Emily!  But he is correct...when the Bachelor is over...we don't try as hard to get together.  It's not that we don't care or that we don't like each other.  We just don't seem to make the time to just hang out like we do when the Bachelor is on.

So, this annoyed me.  I was more annoyed at Curt for saying things that are true...but that is besides the point.  So, last week I did something about it!  I went out to dinner with my friend, went to a baby shower and saw all of my friends, and then went out to dinner with my girlfriends!!!  That is 3-points for Amy with Friends and 0 points for No Friends Amy!  Yay me!

Here is the thing, everyone has their own lives.  And for the most part I assume that everyone is super busy with their own life to hang out with me.  And some days I don't want to hang with people.  I just want to go home and be super lazy.  The other thing is...is that I can't always go out to eat.  It starts getting pricey.  I loved dinner on Saturday and it was so yummy...but it was $25.  And that will start to add up!  The other hard thing for me, is that I live at home with my folks.  So, I can't just invite friends over.  So, a goal of mine will be...when I get my own place to invite people over so that we are not always spending money!

Okay, that is all for today!

Inspirational Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!!!

So, last night I found out that 85% of the time I should go with my first answer/thought/instinct. You know when people talk about gut instinct and all that jazz? Well, I don't always have that...but when it comes to working out and eating...my instinct is pretty good. But I found I don't really listen to it.

Yesterday I went from full time job to part time job. Yay for listening to my first thought!!! On the way home I said, when you get home eat, take Chan out, and then do your daily workout. I did not have to do the run because I was going to dance class. Then I got home and my second thought was "I don't really have to workout, I am dancing for an hour". So, I did not do the daily workout. Just wait folks, it gets worse. I did go to dance class, (yay, first thought!) Then on the way home my first thought was "Get home, jump in the shower, take Chan out and go to bed. Do not pass go, do not collect $200". Okay, so I did not think about Monolopy. Did I do that? No, I sat down and watched a TV show. And it wasn't even a new one. It was a recap of all of the episodes that I have already seen. And when my thought was, don't eat anything because it's after 8pm and you get weird dreams when you eat after 8pm. Did I listen? No, I went and got some ice cream! And did I listen to my first thought of taking a shower so I wouldn't have to get up earlier than I wanted too? No, I just sat and watched TV until I took Chan out at 10:45pm. Then did I go to bed after walking Chan like my first thought told me too? NO!!! I sat back down and watched more TV until going to bed around 11:30!!!

What was my problem? I could not have listened to myself any less than I did yesterday!!! I was so annoyed when I went to bed! I should be showered right now, it should only be 10:30, I should not be feeling a little ill because I ate the ice cream! ARG!!! Sometimes we can't see what is best for us. Or maybe we can see it (hence the first thought) but we don't want to listen. I guess that is our inner brat coming out! Here is the thing, most of the time the first thought is the best one. Go to bed early, eat better, do your workout! Then our inner brat talks us out of it! How many times has your first thought been, I'm going to get up early and workout before my day starts? And how many times have you hit snooze (if you are like me, you hit snooze at least 6 times). Why is it so easy for us to ignore ourselves. If anyone else ignored us like we ignored ourself...they would be grounded or sleeping on the couch or defriended on Facebook! Why are we so different?

Why is it okay for us to be mean to ourselves? Why is it okay for us to treat ourselves as if we don't matter? Because darn it, we do matter! In fact we should matter the most to us. I'm not saying you should be your very own first proirity...but you all know that if you are happy...those around you will notice and be happy with you. If you are in a bad mood..those around you will be more down. Or not want to be around you any more. Treat others how you want to be treated!!! And then actually treat yourself like that! (Cheese Moment) Stop right now and tell yourself that you are right where you are supposed to be! Tell youself that your goal for today is to not be a super hero but to just do better than you did yesterday! You are an amazing person on the inside and out. But if you are unhappy about the out...that is okay because you are working on it! You are amazing and are doing great! You know there is always room for improvement, but yesterday is done and today is a brand new day!!!

Inspiration Monday

I have an email workout group that I send emails too every day (maybe not Sunday's) and I just try to inspire them to workout and eat better.  I started this group to get me motivated to work hard and tone up!  So, far we are on Day 1 of Week 3.  Check out the "10 week workout" post if you want to join in!

Hallo folks (and yes I meant to write Hallo!!!)

Can you believe that we are already in week 3? I cannot! Only 8 weeks left!!! For me, this goes a long with my work schedule. I have 8 weeks left of working at the school until summer. So, this workout is literally taking me straight to summer!

Alright, I hope your week 2 was awesome! I did a much better job week 2, however I still can't seem to get the workout down on Saturday's and Sunday's. But that is okay! I'm not too worried about it! I figured that I can continue to work on that! I also feel as if I'm making better choices as well with my eating. However this Thursday is "Ice Cream Bar Treat Day" brought in by yours truely. So, that might be terrible! Ha ha ha!

If you don't feel you did your best last week or you have not really started...then today is your lucky day! Start fresh! Start over! You are not behind, you are exactly where you need to be! If last week you made better food choices, this week try adding on the daily workout out or the run. Then next week add the other! For some people, it's a daunting thing trying to do everything at once. So, do what works best for you! As long as you are giving it your all, then you are doing amazing! Let's say that again "As long as I am doing my best, I'm doing amazing"!!!

Everyone is different, everyone needs to do things at their own speed. This is what is awesome about this workout. Don't look at anyone but yourself! You are the only one you have to compete against! The cool thing about that is that you only need to do better this week than you did last week. Don't look at your friends or spouse...everyone works out differently, or loses weight differently, or eats differently...and all that is okay! Do bettern than YOU did last week!

You are amazing! You are doing great! And only compete against yourself!!! Email tomorrow!

Inspriational Friday

Alright folks, it's day 5 of week 2!!!

Let's just start by patting yourself on the back for making it to Friday!!! Sometimes, that in itself is amazing!!! Everyone take a moment to just sit and say way to go!

Yesterday I was a little worried because I thought that my schedule was going to make it difficult for me to workout. I was not looking forward to running at 8pm. But...I found out at lunch that I had signed up to work the choir concert!!! So, yay for me! I was able to run and do my daily reps all before the concert!

On the way to the concert I remembered that it was my last day for my Birthday Starbucks drink. You can get any drink, any size, for free! And of course I waited until the last day...but darn it...I wanted my free drink. So, I decided to get it on the way home. I knew in my heart, that I should not get a drink since that is just calories...but I told that rational side of my brain to shut it! Lucky for me it was cold outside, so ordering a Grande (yay for me not getting the biggest size in the world) Caramel Apple Cider! I felt that it was a bit better than a White Chocolate Mocha (man are those yummy)! Anyway, the point of this story is this...I did my workout and did not feel guilty about getting that drink!

Guys this is the whole point of us doing this! Well, okay..the whole point in us doing this is to workout, eat better, lose weight, and tone up. But if you take the actual points away...this experience for us is to lose the guilt. I mean who doesn't have guilt. And this guilt for the most part is in our own head! Here is how you know if the guilt should be real or not...

Pretend your friend came up to you and said I didn't workout because family stuff, crazy day...yada yada yada...then she says I feel so bad about not working out. What do you say as a friend? If you are a good friend (ha ha ha, just kidding) you say...hey stop feeling guilty! If you were busy then you were busy. Get over it move on, and try to workout tomorrow! I don't know many people who would say, wow, you are a bad person! You are never going to lose the weight...you might as well quit now!

Why are we so hard on ourselves? Why do we hold ourselves to some crazy high standard that we would never hold our best friends too or our family too? That is just silly! The best part about working out is that you can always start fresh! You ate everything in the house for breakfast, then eat a smaller lunch! You did not do the workout last night? No worries, try your best to do it the next day! Or split it up into smaller segments and do it throughout the day! You had 12 brownies while hiding in your closet so that no one else would see the brownies and want one? Well, now you might have a small problem! Once again I'm kidding (well if you are secretly eating in your closet, that is a bigger issue than these emails)! Moving on...

Folks, give yourself some credit! Feel great about how you have done this past week and a half! Even if you aren't doing everything that is on the list. Or you aren't eating your best! You are at least trying and thinking and moving some! Be proud of that and every day push yourself a little bit more than the day before. I know you can do it! You all know that you can do it!!! Yay for you guys!!!  

I might be a little weird...and by a little I mean a lot!

So, my school has some back stairwells.  They remind me of stairwells that you see in parking garages or hotels.  I realized that every time I go on these back stairs I feel like I'm in a movie.  I normally start off normal (like they are normal stairs) then all of sudden I start trying to see how quite I can be.  As if someone has just entered the stairwell looking for me.  My mind usually transforms into some crazy action packed movie with guns firing and such.  Anyway, for one flight I'm going as quiet as I can, then when it comes to the second flight of stairs I usually take off and go up or down (depending on where I'm going) as fast as I can.  Thank goodness we only have 3 floors or I could be chased by fake intruders for a crazy amount of time.

So today's jaunt was no different.  I was helping a student on the 3rd floor.  I started to head down the stairs like a normal person, when 3 steps into it...I started walking as quiet as I could.  Then all of a sudden people entered the stairwell.  It was like a real movie (okay, so they were teachers who work here, no guns, no big chase scene...so it was nothing like a movie)!  I crept down the stairs undetected by them, for an entire flight of stairs.  Then I sprinted down the last flight and was out the door and safe!  I have decided if I'm ever being chased in a stairwell, I really hope that I get to go downstairs instead of up.  Let's be honest, after a few flights I'm going to sit down and try to talk it out with the mad man who is chasing me!

Does anyone else do this?  No?  Just me?  That is okay, but now the next time you go down a back stairwell...I hope you think of me and my crazy thoughts.  I hope you sneak down a few flights and then sprint down the rest, because it's actually kind of fun!  It really brings out the excitement in your day!!!

Random Funny Story- I apologize for those who have heard this.  It should be the first time you have read it though...just a thought!

I used to work in the Library at KU!  They are called the stacks and they are kind of creepy.  I would listen to my head phones and put books away.  My imagination is still the same as it was back in the day...so I would have crazy scenes going on in my head while working in the Stacks.  One day I'm in my head thinking of how to escape from this position...when I turned the corner and there was a man standing right in front of me.  I knew he was waiting for me...so I screamed in his face and took off running.  Down the several flights of stairs (little creepy stairs) until I came to be around other people.  That is when I realized that the "man" was probably a college student and he was probably looking at me because I was making noise and he turned toward my direction.  Anyway, it still cracks me up when I think about screaming in that guys face!

Happy Thursday Folks, let your imagination go crazy and run down some stairs!

Motivational Thursday

This is an email that I sent out to my amazing workout group!  Enjoy!

Happy Thursday Folks,

At this moment I'm feeling a little guilty, but only because I'm eating a cookie. It is after all Thursday Treat Day! The good news is, is that it's the only treat I have had. Remember last week when I was sitting here with my cake and many other desserts! This morning I made myself eat breakfast so that I would not be starving (like I normally am) for the treats. The other thing that helps, is that today's treat day doesn't seem to be all that awesome! Either way, it is helping me not eat everything that I see!!!

So far this week (all three days of it) I have done the daily excercise!!! Two of those days I also did the running and the other day I danced for an hour. Last night was a little rough! I had gotten home from school and did my running. Instead of doing the daily workout, I put a load of laundry away! Then I went and sang at Church and went to visit my boyfriend!

By the time I got home it was 11pm, I had to walk my dog, and it was freezing and drizzling outside. Once again the entire walk with Chandler I was trying to talk myself out of doing the daily excercise. I thought about nice it would be to just crawl into my flannel pj pants and then into bed. But then I thought of how great I had been doing. I mean, I already ran and that to me is the hard part. So, I got home, went upstairs and did the workout. It seemed harder than I remember, but maybe because it was 11:30 at night and my body was just done! But, I did it! And I can say that I did it! And as I fell asleep, I thought...yay me!

I hope that you all are allowing yourself to feel that! If you are making better choices with your eating and/or working out...it's all awesome! You are doing this for your health. Your choices in the short term only affect you! If you want to workout or eat better...that will not change anything other than your life. So, this is purely a selfish thing to do! And let's be honest, most of us could use a purely selfish moment! If you start looking out beyond yourself, you will see this decision affects those around you. If you eat better will your significant other eat better? If your kids see you working out and eating right, won't that affect how they eat and take care of themselves in the future. So, if you can't handle taking a moment or doing something for yourself...then think of if like this...your actions will affect and change those around you! My BFF FlyLady says all the time, if you are happy then those around you will be happier!

So, get out there and make yourself happy! Go to bed happy because you worked out! Go to bed sore because you kicked your own rear end and pushed yourself harder than you did yesterday! I know you can do it! You know you can do it! You just have to let yourself actually do it! Push away all the negative thoughts, the fears, the tiredness, the stress, the excuses...and make yourself happy! You deserve it as much as you think other people deserve it!