Sunny Days and Earthquake

Good evening,  It's nice and sunny over here in Eastern Pennsylvania and it's only around 6:30pm.  I am enjoying these hours of sunniness. :) 
 
   So, I was not able to put in a post like I was planning.  But I did continue to workout every day.  And I am feeling the effects.  My shoulders and neck are so sore that I had to ask Marcus to massage them for me.  They still feel like rocks.  As an update in my exercise, I have continued to do my cardio videos that are 10 minutes each on sparkpeople.com, cardio through eliptical, and cardio dvds through netflix--another reason I am so thankful for the convenience of netflix.  I have lately not been wanting to get out and exercise, so I have been working out at home, except for yesterday.  Yesterday I worked out for a full hour of eliptical and strength-training, which I think is what is making me feel sore today. 

I could tell you that I didn't struggle, but that wouldn't be true.  I really had to just go and exercise without agreeing in my mind.  Most of the time I like to dream and sit and enjoy the beauty around me like this:

But, alas, I have to do more than just dream all day.  So, here is a great picture of what I can imagine to get moving and other motivational examples to help me to just do it:

My #1 Motivation:

Working out is a way for me to connect my awareness of my body and spending time with God, talking with him by praying and surrendering stresses, anxiety, worries, concerns into His hands.

Having that silence is sometimes a must for me from hearing noise outside to sitting in the classroom full of people talking.  Silence can help me to focus on what's going on and like the poster I can play with the silence hearing how my body responds with the silence.  It's also many times the time that I really just want to hear God's voice and nothing else.

I love being able to escape from my routine while listening to music and seeing how the music affects my body while I work out.  It can get my heart rate pumping, distract me from soreness and/or exhaustion, and makes it fun.  And then sometimes I like watching TV while working out.

 Can yu imagine looking at Mr. T when deciding to workout?  I can!

You never know when this type of situation could happen and if you are in better shape then you could be better for it.  Of course, fear is not really the best motivator, but sometimes it is part of reality.  If I were that person paddling--if I were the same weight that I am now there would be a higher chance of me tipping over my canoe because of my weight.  If I were lighter though and in good shape I could paddle faster because I would be stronger.  And this type of situation applies to me because these kinds of situations happen for me.  I could tell you the stories of when I ran into a rattlesnake while hiking, slammed into coral reef in Jamaica ocean, and fell into prickly pear while hiking--I seem to run into trouble, literally.  So, for me, I try to be prepared as much as I am able to and pray for God's protection when I do face danger.  Speaking of reality, in response to those wondering for my title of this blogpost, I put Earthquake because we did in fact have an earthquake and I am proud to say that I was working out when the earthquake struck, but we are fine over where I live.  Many people say the most that happened over here is that there house shook a little, but nothing harmful took place.

 My current weight. I am growing to love me where I am at and make changes to a healthier me.

My goal weight and an idea of what I will look like then.  I will have more energy, be at the healthy weight I need to be, rather than the obese weight that I am now, and get to wear smaller clothes.

I can't discount the support of my husband, Marcus (my name for him is Sky).  He gives me the support I need when my feelings are against the idea of working out.  I love you, Marcus Sky :)  @)}-,--'--

What are some examples or motivations for you to get going?

Slump and Surprise Cake

Greetings to everyone this week,

  
   I have had a rough week in terms of my exercise routine.  And you would think with not having a job that it would be easier.  It hasn't been.  I haven't even rode the bicycle yet.  However, the last time I blogged after I thought of not exercising, I kicked myself into gear.

 Haha I actually did more than in the above cartoon--Hope you enjoyed a laugh. 

I am sure all of you feel frustrated on a day or two...or a week of getting into your exercise routine...I draaaggged myself to the gym (5 days ago right after the last blog entry) and burned more calories than I thought was possible after not working out for a while, and came home and worked out.  I did 20 minutes on the eliptical and 10 minutes on the stairmaster.  I burned over 300 calories in that time.  I was very proud of myself because I only needed to burn 271. 

The exercise routine following the rest of the week lasted for a whole straight three days, and then...I haven't been at it until today.  I do admit though that I really enjoyed those 3 days of hard long workouts.  I found a netflix workout called Crunch last Saturday which really made me sweat, but then I got distracted and kept looking at exercise and calorie counting as a paper that I could hold off on until later.

TODAY sucked.  Not going to lie.  I did not want to wake up early this morning as I was doing last week.  And I find that when I wake up earlier like around 9am or 9:30 at the latest, I am motivated to workout.  It's a conflict for me of when to work out because I am more of a night-owl.  I have more energy at night than I do in the morning. 

But I am definitely feeling the effects of not keeping up my exercise routine.  I feel sore all over from only 20 minutes of cardio that I did today on my yoga mat and it wasn't that intense of a cardio session.  Core and lower body exercises.  My legs felt like they were on fire!  I am hoping to actually be able to do all of the exercises without the feeling of an exhausted burning feeling that makes you feel like your legs are going to break, if you keep doing them.

~~Goal for tomorrow: Getting up earlier and Attempting to workout earlier than lunch time...maybe after breakfast? :)

Achievements for the week:

1. I have been on top of cleaning the kitchen every night this past week and a half.
2. I cleaned the bathroom--sink, toilet, bathtub.
3. I got paperwork done for school..now to pay it ;) .
4. I talked with my best friend last night on the phone--Love you, Ange! (Make sure you see the below picture(s)--just for YOU ;)  )
5. AND.....I made CAaaaKkeeE! :D 

Reason for cake~~Marcus and I found out last night that he got the job he applied and interviewed for, so I made a cake to honor him :)  And now, the question is, what's the best thing to do with cake??-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Think about it,,,,

Look at it,,,,

Smell it,,,,

AND/OR...

Eat it,,,,

 Wait...am I missing something else?  Oh, yeah...

That.

Hope you all have a good night. And hopefully I will fill you in on my workout that will take place tomorrow.

My Motivation

Hi to all reading my blog,

   It has been a while since I have updated.  I am going to try to be more consistent.  For now, I think I will try to update at least once a week.  My husband and I have had a lot of changes.  One: I had to quit my job because it was getting in the way of me focusing on school. And two, we are looking for another place to live for cheaper.  Anyway, with those changes, I have let other things get in the way of my exercise routine.  And that's okay with me right now.  I had to do some major cleaning of our apartment.  I have been tackling the kitchen and today I am going to tackle the bathroom by the end of the week.

 Something I have been learning is that what you have in life is a gift that it is necessary to take care of it before you are given more to take care of.  These are words of wisdom that I received from reading my Bible and reminded of from my close friends.  Thus, it's necessary to get rid of things you don't need. 

I am a packrat, but I am changing that because it makes things much less stressful living in a decluttered  environment, and I honestly don't need things that I don't need.  I have been getting rid of clothes and towels so far...

This leads me to my next thought: needing to take care of our bodies because our lives are gifts.  I believe that God has given us life to take care of it, to tend to it.  And this really has changed my perspective--God, who knows me and has created me, knew the struggles I would have with my weight and getting rid of other things, yet He still gave me life which is full of possibilities to try try again in all areas that I want to work on.  The great thing is that I am not alone on my journey.  I have God.  He is with me everywhere that I go.  This is encouragement that I am passing on to you who are asking God where He is.  I had a friend tell me recently that when I would go to Jamaica He would be there waiting for me, so like Jamaica, when I go to the gym or go for a walk/run He will be there waiting to go with me.  And when I think about the most memorable workouts I remember it as worship with my Heavenly Father.  It is motivation for me!  Now...if I can just keep remembering that ;)

I am also learning that with life you are required to fall but it is necessary to get back up again.  For me, I am lazy.  It takes it for me to rely on God and ask Him to help me to take care of myself.  I tend to take care of others more than myself.  Hence, I tend to put off exercise.  But that's okay with me.  It doesn't help to beat myself up about it, but to allow grace on myself by asking God to change my heart about it.  It's a consistency that I need to be disciplined in doing like staying on top of cleaning and getting rid of things we don't need.  It's just a part of life, part of the responsibility of having the gift of life.  This is starting to become my new perspective.

 Constantly processing: the challenges that I will face and that I will share with you on here take time to overcome.  It doesn't happen overnight, so in order to enjoy the process I need to enjoy the learning in the journey towards my goal of a hundred pounds lighter, but even then I will be excited to be at 170.  I honestly do not know when I was at that weight because I did not make a routine of weighing myself years and years ago. 

  Exercise Update: I have had opportunities to exercise in the past week.  On Sunday I went to Philly for a school obligation that I wound up walking a ton!  I not only walked in Philly to where I was going but I walked home from the train station near home, which is more than a mile--a great achievement for me! :)  And just looking outside now makes me want to be a part of the beauty, thinking about going out there and doing something like walking in the beautiful atmosphere to head to the gym to do 30 minutes of cardio and weight-lifting...but a big part of me wants to absorb the beauty as an observer taking in all the details in front of me.  And today, I chose to do that from my window. 



Apology about the randomness and unorganized thoughts.  This is another challenge I am trying to work on heh and I am enjoying the journey of that by trying trying again through blogging.  

...What are some challenges that you are facing and how are you trying to reach them?