Month: August 2018

I am SO glad my busy season of work is over, running an all out sprint basically from June 1 to Sept 1 is exhausting on many levels. This week has been the first week since my brief reprieve in July when I’ve been able to wake up an hour early and have that hour for ME.

*I preset my coffee maker so I can wake up to coffee and grab a cup first thing (well after chugging a glass of water to get my system going)
*Read for 10-15 minutes
*Review/update my schedule for the day/week
*Write/review goals for the week/day
*Usually try to take an action step towards at least one of the goals
*Catch up social media and post on here
*Categorize blog posts on my tumblr (I’ve been tagging all 3,100 posts into categories working from now back, I’m currently in Fall 2011 and need to get to be beginning which was January 2010).

Then before I know it my alarm is going off to remind me to get ready for work, grab my breakfast and lunch for the day and head out the door. It’s my own version of a goddess/diva hour and I can’t recommend taking an hour for yourself to start your day enough!

I am far too verbose for 59 seconds, but thought I’d share a quick video check in about the comfort of real talk. I’m so fortunate to have a number of outlets and gabbing with friends over lunch is a favorite. Find your people both in real life and in corners of the internet, empathy is powerful stuff…

This month has been an absolute rollercoaster in every way imaginable from great to terrible and it’s reflected on the scale.
I learned that binging is a bigger issue in my life that I thought when I’m feel stressed or out of control. I binge on work and food – sometimes together, but not always.
I often “punish” myself – I’ve learned that my workaholism that I’m in recovery for is a way that I “punish” myself for not accomplishing as much as I wanted to in a day (it especially have reared it’s ugly head when my team is understaffed and I try to overcompensate and overfunction to try and make up for being understaffed.
With food when I’m feeling out of control then I really act out and “punish” myself through binge eating. If I feel a little bit broken I tend to “self harm” through workaholism or food until I’m truly shattered.
Over the last year through ACA and therapy I’ve become more away of my workaholism and need to set boundaries. I am only now recognizing this pattern through food. Recognizing there pattern is half the battle, but there is still work to be done. I’m excited as of this week be in my “quiet” season at work, but I plan to continue to do the work I myself because I don’t want another peak season of work or life to happen and derail me.

This joke from @ilizas Confirmed Kills Netflix special made me LOL.

Speaking of losing 5 pounds, I’m back on the @weightwatchers wagon as of this weekend and I’m relieved to see 5.5 pounds of the 6 pounds I gained in a week (thanks insane work season) is gone. So I’m back to my post vacation weight. Now it’s 5 more pounds to get back to my lowest weight which I saw before vacation.
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#weightlossjourney #weightwatchers #wwfreestyle #stress #balance #alignment #backontrack

Learning to be comfortable in uncertainty will be my biggest hurdle to date. I’ve lived my life so guarded, so practical, so safe, so steady, so certain…but where has it gotten me?
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I’ve played small for much of my life, but this is stopping now.
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I want more than the life I’ve built myself thus far. Part of me has felt for a while “well I’m on this course why detour?” but now I want more than to detour I want to burn it down. Okay I’m slowing my role and let’s be real, I don’t yet have the balls to really light a match and run from my current life, but I’m definitely rerouting myself.
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I don’t want to be an employee, I want to be a creative entrepreneur. I don’t want to live a provincial life in the suburbs, I want to be in a city or by the beach or better yet in a city by the beach. I want to take risks and not fear critics and judgement. I want to live life on my terms, I’m still figuring what I want, but I know I’m clear on what I don’t want and I’m taking action steps daily to get clear on what I want and make it a reality.
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Will I make some mistakes, take a few bump, or worse FAIL. Yes, yes I will, but I really can’t live my life with regret. Finally my internal balance has shifted – the regret would be more painful than the failure and it’s fucking exciting as hell to feel this way!
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#purposedrivenlife #goals #forgetregret #uncertainty #creative #spiritthatisnotafraid

When it’s too hot and humid to even walk outside and there are no Monday night classes at the gym, my old standby Jillian still does the trick!
PS – Also went to lunchtime yoga at work today!
#fitnessmotivation #fitnessjourney #weightlossjourney #selfcare #soundmindsoundbody

Finally pulled out some of the materials to review from THE BEST CLASS I’ve ever taken. It was an elective I took my last semester of grad school back in Spring 2007. It was a class geared toward K-6 education majors in the department of Educational Psychology: Creativity.
I STILL think about the class and I’m excited to reread all the course materials.
The course was described as: “The major purpose of this introductory course is to study the theoretical and practical aspects of creativity, namely, what is creativity, and how do we develop in ourselves and students? The course is an introductory overview of major definitions, theories, and research related to the study of creativity and the creative individual. Class members will practice techniques for stimulating creative thinking as well as strategies for adapting existing curricula to develop creative thinking abilities in students. Topics also include the assessment of creative thinking, methods for enhancing personal creative abilities, and techniques for examining the creative process.”

I couldn’t let #nationaldogday go by without showing Freddie some love! Fred is my soon to be 11 year old Pomeranian. I got him as a puppy a few months after my Dad died and Freddie’s been by my side ever since.

Last year he had some health issues which scared the hell of of me, but thankfully with a proper diagnosis (Cushings Disease) coupled with a treatment plan he’s been doing well and his health seems to be regulated.

Fred used to be my running buddy (back when I was running), he’d go out up to 5 miles at a time with me and he would probably run faster than a 9 minute mile if I could!! These days we are walking buddies who enjoy stopping to smell the roses!

Freddie is the best thing to ever happen to me, he healed so many holes in my heart and showed me I was able to care for someone else…

I put on my big girl pants and registered for the initial training course for Body Pump on October 13-14!
I’ve wanted to do this for a long time and with support from my sister who is an instructor as well as the instructors from gym I’m ready!
It’s more than fitness for me it’s self care and personal development. I’m excited to see where taking these steps will lead me…