This is kind of my new favorite website. www.instamotivation.com -- for when you need a little extra push.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
Movies, books and great friends
This weekend was rather fulfilling. Aside from having to mind the terror while the parentals were out of town (the terror here being my 13 year old pubescent brother), it was rather relaxing.
I'm telling you, get your parents to have a child eleven years after you are born, it is the purest form of birth control you will ever need. Having to live in a house with a boy going through puberty and becoming a teenager once you are already an adult is completely unnerving.
This past weekend I saw the movie About Time with my best friend Ashley.
We snuck bagels and coffee into an early Saturday showing. This is now my favorite way/time to see all movies going forward. I highly suggest this movie if you are into that sort of genre of movies. It was witty, sweet and moving.
Saturday evening my friends and I all gathered for our annual 'Friendsgiving' where we try to pretend we are all adults living on our own. So we all bake our pot luck dishes and come together to laugh and eat.
We all ate way to much food but we had a great time. And I scored desserts to bring home with me. So it was a total win. Now I can say I am fully prepared for actual Thanksgiving.
To round out a wonderful weekend I read a book….on a Kindle Fire. I've always been adamant about not using e-readers because I love books. I love the way they smell and feel. But it wasn't as bad as I thought. It did hurt my eyes a little but I liked that I could get the book from my library without leaving my house.
I read The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. It was a beautiful book, about a man, his dog and his family, but written from the perspective of the dog. Wonderfully written.
If you are a dog lover then I recommend you read this. It has made me look at my dog in a whole new light. And it was quick, I read it in a day and half! (granted I was stuck on the couch with a cold all Sunday)
I'm telling you, get your parents to have a child eleven years after you are born, it is the purest form of birth control you will ever need. Having to live in a house with a boy going through puberty and becoming a teenager once you are already an adult is completely unnerving.
This past weekend I saw the movie About Time with my best friend Ashley.
(click it to get to the IMDB page!)
We snuck bagels and coffee into an early Saturday showing. This is now my favorite way/time to see all movies going forward. I highly suggest this movie if you are into that sort of genre of movies. It was witty, sweet and moving.
Saturday evening my friends and I all gathered for our annual 'Friendsgiving' where we try to pretend we are all adults living on our own. So we all bake our pot luck dishes and come together to laugh and eat.
(my plate far too full of amazingness..boy can my friends cook!)
(after dinner fire chilling! I stole this pic. from my friend Jeff!)
We all ate way to much food but we had a great time. And I scored desserts to bring home with me. So it was a total win. Now I can say I am fully prepared for actual Thanksgiving.
To round out a wonderful weekend I read a book….on a Kindle Fire. I've always been adamant about not using e-readers because I love books. I love the way they smell and feel. But it wasn't as bad as I thought. It did hurt my eyes a little but I liked that I could get the book from my library without leaving my house.
I read The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. It was a beautiful book, about a man, his dog and his family, but written from the perspective of the dog. Wonderfully written.
Click the cover to visit it's Good Reads page!
If you are a dog lover then I recommend you read this. It has made me look at my dog in a whole new light. And it was quick, I read it in a day and half! (granted I was stuck on the couch with a cold all Sunday)
Friday, November 15, 2013
Yoga Mantras and Why They Rock!
Happy Friday internet world!
I went to my yoga class last night and my teacher, Sue, got us thinking and doing some things that inspired me to share.
This is my little yoga studio: it isn't fancy - just a small little room but the teachers are great and it has become like a little piece of home.
There are so many different reasons that I love yoga and to many they seem like all the reasons you should hate something. Yoga challenges me more than anything. It is insanely frustrating. You see these poses that look like they should be easy. So you show up in class, unroll your mat, and follow the teachers' lead, who effortlessly folds into a full forward bend or pops in and out of crow and you think how hard can it be. Then you try to forward fold and you can barely touch your fingers to the mat and your quads and hamstrings are screaming at you to stop.
It sucks. But it also makes me that more determined to do better. After all these years I still can't do a lot, but I've become so proud of what my body can do every single time I try. And I can now successfully touch my palms to the ground in forward fold.
Sue puts a lot of emphasis on being aware of your body. Of breathing. Of being still. This is the second thing that I love but also hate. It teaches me to be still. It teachers me to slow down. It teachers me to listen to what my body is telling me.
We start practice by breathing and clearing our minds. Lately I've been having a lot of trouble doing that. Last night Sue told us that instead of setting an intention for practice that we should set a mantra. Something that we can repeat to ourselves whenever a pose became to hard or our minds wandered.
My mantra was 'I am strong' - because I wanted to believe it. And it worked. I had some trouble with triangle because my stupid knees hate being locked straight and I have poor balance, but later on I got into side crow! This is crazy exciting for me. I was so excited that I promptly came home and continued practicing. Then I got our my phone and videoed myself practicing. Which if you know me…is weird for me. Granted I was only in it for a few seconds, but I was able to get off the ground and that is a huge step!
Here's a video:
I think my mantra can apply to all parts of my life. Not just the yoga parts. Which I can say is true for a lot of things lately. I find myself deep breathing at my desk sometimes and need to consciously stop.
So my parting moral of the story is to pick a mantra. Find one that works for you. Make it short so it is easy to remember and easy to repeat, and then when life is getting a bit rocky just repeat it over and over and over again until you feel stable. Of course in your head so not to let other think you are going crazy!
I went to my yoga class last night and my teacher, Sue, got us thinking and doing some things that inspired me to share.
This is my little yoga studio: it isn't fancy - just a small little room but the teachers are great and it has become like a little piece of home.
(This picture is kind crappy because I stole it from the Google Maps street view)
There are so many different reasons that I love yoga and to many they seem like all the reasons you should hate something. Yoga challenges me more than anything. It is insanely frustrating. You see these poses that look like they should be easy. So you show up in class, unroll your mat, and follow the teachers' lead, who effortlessly folds into a full forward bend or pops in and out of crow and you think how hard can it be. Then you try to forward fold and you can barely touch your fingers to the mat and your quads and hamstrings are screaming at you to stop.
It sucks. But it also makes me that more determined to do better. After all these years I still can't do a lot, but I've become so proud of what my body can do every single time I try. And I can now successfully touch my palms to the ground in forward fold.
Sue puts a lot of emphasis on being aware of your body. Of breathing. Of being still. This is the second thing that I love but also hate. It teaches me to be still. It teachers me to slow down. It teachers me to listen to what my body is telling me.
We start practice by breathing and clearing our minds. Lately I've been having a lot of trouble doing that. Last night Sue told us that instead of setting an intention for practice that we should set a mantra. Something that we can repeat to ourselves whenever a pose became to hard or our minds wandered.
My mantra was 'I am strong' - because I wanted to believe it. And it worked. I had some trouble with triangle because my stupid knees hate being locked straight and I have poor balance, but later on I got into side crow! This is crazy exciting for me. I was so excited that I promptly came home and continued practicing. Then I got our my phone and videoed myself practicing. Which if you know me…is weird for me. Granted I was only in it for a few seconds, but I was able to get off the ground and that is a huge step!
Here's a video:
I think my mantra can apply to all parts of my life. Not just the yoga parts. Which I can say is true for a lot of things lately. I find myself deep breathing at my desk sometimes and need to consciously stop.
So my parting moral of the story is to pick a mantra. Find one that works for you. Make it short so it is easy to remember and easy to repeat, and then when life is getting a bit rocky just repeat it over and over and over again until you feel stable. Of course in your head so not to let other think you are going crazy!
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
My Main Motivation
This month I am beginning a new journey.
I joined an online community sponsored by Under Armour called Under Armour What's Beautiful. It's a community focused on women who want to better themselves, mostly through being the best version they can be. Under Armour sets the challenges but you set your goal and post videos and pictures of your progress. The women within the community are crazy supportive and already giving me great feedback, even though they have no clue who I am.
This has inspired me in more ways than just getting fit. It has inspired this new venture into the inter webs, where unlike Twitter, where I ramble and complain and unlike Tumblr where I just admire pretty nature pictures and movie stills, I will blog. I will hold myself accountable and bring you along on my journey towards a better me.
I turn 25 in January and I have decided that I want to make the most out of my post college, real world life. So this is my trip into the unknown. I believe that to be a better version of yourself you need a little bit of everything. So while this blog will mostly be my attempts to be a more fit person, it will also be about me trying to be a more happy person. So that means you get to read about the books I'm loving, the trips I'm taking, the awesome happening that are making me feel good, the food I'm cooking, the dog that I love, and of course all the ups and downs of my fittness endeavors.
I joined an online community sponsored by Under Armour called Under Armour What's Beautiful. It's a community focused on women who want to better themselves, mostly through being the best version they can be. Under Armour sets the challenges but you set your goal and post videos and pictures of your progress. The women within the community are crazy supportive and already giving me great feedback, even though they have no clue who I am.
This has inspired me in more ways than just getting fit. It has inspired this new venture into the inter webs, where unlike Twitter, where I ramble and complain and unlike Tumblr where I just admire pretty nature pictures and movie stills, I will blog. I will hold myself accountable and bring you along on my journey towards a better me.
I turn 25 in January and I have decided that I want to make the most out of my post college, real world life. So this is my trip into the unknown. I believe that to be a better version of yourself you need a little bit of everything. So while this blog will mostly be my attempts to be a more fit person, it will also be about me trying to be a more happy person. So that means you get to read about the books I'm loving, the trips I'm taking, the awesome happening that are making me feel good, the food I'm cooking, the dog that I love, and of course all the ups and downs of my fittness endeavors.
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