Some New Goals for My Today...My NOW. And Bring on the PULL-UPs!

Goals Goals Goals.  As far back in my life as I can remember, I've been a goal-driven person.  When I was a kid, I might not have known that the things I set in my mind to work towards were even called "Goals" but I had them.  I've always had something in my head and my heart that I wanted to strive for.    To go along with the goals I've set for myself has been quite a heavy dose of REFLECTION and this has been KEY for me in being able to accomplish the things I set out to do.  As I continue to work towards things that I want for my life, I've always been able to take a step back and see myself from another perspective. I can see where I'm struggling and where I need to make changes.  I can also see the progress I've made along the way...taking the time to notice this progress makes me want to keep going!  Many times I set goals that only last for a short while before getting scraped.  And sometimes my goals continue to hold for months and years.  No matter how long I sit with a goal, having them always makes me a better me.  

Recently I've felt such a pull to take a step back and start fresh with some goals.  Things have just been moving so quickly and it seems as if every day, every week has been FULL with changes and NEW NEW NEW with this move to North Carolina.  Now that things are settling into "normal" and this place feels more like home, I've had a chance to sit with my old friend REFLECTION and think about where I'm at with life and myself and where I want to be.  

Some new Goals for my TODAY...for my NOW:

• Connect on a deeper level.  So much of me craves connection and an opportunity to share my life moments with those that I love and miss but a huge part of me has been craving an equal amount of privacy or rather a closer knit social circle. Not sure how I will go about doing this but taking time for e-mail, phone calls, special "I'm thinking of you" text messages", filtering my facebook audience so I'm connecting with less people and more with the people that truly care.  
• Be PRESENT and engaged with my kids without phone or other distractions nearby.  
• Read more books.  I have a reading list for the summer and it looks like this will be my summer of classics.  I'm done with Jane Eyre and on to a book called Silas Marner (almost done) by George Elliot.  Excited for the next one.  
• Enrich my MIND (again, more reading along with visiting museums, writing, having more meaningful conversations with friends, etc.)
• Stay off FB way way MORE...limit times that I check Facebook, e-mail and other social media outlets.  And share less and with limited people.  
• Use my Gifts.  Volunteer, connect, being open and conscious of giving of myself to the world . 
• Continue to reflect and set goals.  This is a goal in itself.
• Get in touch with my spiritual side that has been neglected lately.    
• FITNESS.  I have no real running goals right now other than to run often and running what I feel like running.  Some days this will be 5 miles and other days only 3.  But it is so wonderful to not be training for anything specific.  One of my biggest goals with fitness in addition to a healthy lifestyle (diet, staying active, etc.) is to continue to build on strength.  I've been doing lots of: Lunges, push ups, hill running, dips, abs, pull-ups, etc.  My body is shouting out a big "THANK YOU" for the drop in mileage and just more of an overall balance to my fitness routine.  
• One of the goals I've set for myself this summer is to do 10 full pull-ups by the end of the summer.  Right now I'm at about 6 to 7 but I have some work to do with not bringing my knees up.  I'm not entirely sure of the "Proper" form for a pull-up but I plan to make sure to have that down by the end of the summer.  I think that instead of doing pull-ups every day, I might break it up to 3 times a week with 3 sets of pull-ups (as many as I can do).  Many times,  I walk by my pull-up bar and I  make a point to pull myself up on the bar and hold myself up for as long as I can last before continuing whatever it was I was doing.  It helps that the bar is in my kids' bedroom door frame.  Below is a video of my 6 pull-ups from last night and almost 7 today.  You'll notice what I mean by my knees coming up.  But here's to making progress!  10 seems like a lot more than 6 and 7 when it comes to pull-ups.   

Are you a goal driven person?  Do you write your goals down or just keep them in your mind?  What's one of your biggest goals in life right now? 

Tips for doing proper pull-ups? Feel free to critique my form.   

Amanda 

Why Do We Do It? And Athleta Inspiration!

Why do we train?  Why do we workout and push ourselves physically?  Why run?  Spin?  Lift weights?  Eat healthy? Seek balance in our life?  Why do you do it?  Of the top of my head I can think of several good reasons for why I do it:

*  Makes me feel good.
*  Gives me a goal
*  Allows me to feel strong and be ACTIVE in other areas of my life
*  Helps me be more balanced, flexible, and peaceful
*  Give me self confidence
*  Good example to my kids
*  Helps me be self disciplined
*  Accomplish new running goals--be a faster runner!
*  Live a better life.
*  Eating right, exercise, spiritual focus and living a balanced life helps to make our life incredible!

But let's face it folks.  If most of us are being honest, we also do these things because:
*  It helps us look GREAT!
*  Our butts look good in our favorite jeans.
*  We feel sexy when we look in the mirror.
*  It makes our love life more exciting
*  We just feel GOOD about what we look like...feels good to look good.

Go no further for inspiration or motivation to get in shape, be the best you and be healthy!  I picked up an Athleta catalog today while my daughters were in gymnastics and it was all I needed to get pumped up to workout and train hard.  Yes, I want to do these things because it will make me a faster runner and hopefully live a better life but I also would love to keep on looking good!  And where do they get their models for this catalog?!  Seriously, talk about beautiful physique and pictures that encompass strength, mental focus, determination, adventure, balance and peace!  If I had an extra paycheck, I just might buy everything I saw in their catalog.  Instead, I just cut all these inspirational and motivation pictures out and did a little collage art in my running journal.  It didn't take long for this creative exercise and now I feel super charged, motivated, and ready to make the most out of my life, seize the day, and accomplish some big goals for my life!

These pictures inspired  me to be strong, determined, focused..mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

These pictures remind me of my desires to live a more balanced life.  To make time for meditation, prayer, and seeking out love, peace, grace and beauty in everything around me.

These remind me that exercise, healthy living, setting goals, and staying focused will allow me to live the active life I want to live.  I hope to continue to have a life full of adventure, travel, and all kinds of activity.  I want to use my gifts and live life fully with Intention, Passion, Joy, Love and Strength. 

Now time to clean up our mess.  My kids are so done with collage art!

Why do you train, eat healthy, set goals, or workout?  


Do you think that training for something specifically and having a certain goal to work towards helps you stay more focused on your fitness, health, and well being?  


If you have never trained for something or had an athletic or fitness goal, do you have one in mind for the future?  

Amanda

Jillian, Jogging and Joy!

Jillian Micheal's No More Trouble Zones workout this morning!   Trouble zones or no trouble zones, this circuit training workout gets results!  Combined with running, it is cheese and wine perfect.  I first heard of it from a couple of my book club girls who were using it to get rid of the baby fat from pregnancy.  I wanted to do the same, as well as tone up my buns and have more lean muscle.  So glad I tried it out...it's now my favorite workout to do at home.  It is hard for me to carve time out to get the gym so having something like this is ideal.  If you haven't tried it before, I'd highly recommend giving it a go!  

Also, My friend who is a personal fitness trainer in Oregon just started a new blog called Daily FitTip4U.  She's just getting started so check her out! She has lots of knowledge about diet, exercise and overall fitness and health.  

This joy I'm feeling from being back to running and exercise is contagious!  My energy has rubbed off on my kids.  Amazing how when I'm feeling positive and loving, they are positive and loving to each other (at least more than usual).  They were actually playing together nicely this morning and giving thanks for each other in their thankful can instead of ripping each other's hair out (and me wanting to do the same).  My oldest went off to Kinder with a smile on her face and skip in her step.  I could tell she just felt good about her morning and the extra positive vibes we were swimming in this morning.  Can't say enough about how happy this made me...I actually felt like giving myself a pat on the back and saying "Good job Mom!"  instead of the all to often feeling of failure that I've had the past several weeks. 

Jogging. Yes, I said "jogging".  I never liked to refer to my runs as jogs but today I will take a jog with joyfulness! A jog is closer to a run than walking! This injury has humbled me greatly.  I went on my second jog with the double jogger after dropping my oldest off at school. Felt awesome!  We combined it with a leaf hunt for a leaf wreath that we will make.  The jog was filled with many stops and shout outs from my 3 year old.  "Stop the stroller!! Quick!  There is a fine fine leaf!"  Of course the entire earth is covered with fine and beautiful leaves so it made for lots of shouting and lots of stopping to get out and collect the many colors we found.  This actually worked well to help me follow my plan to take it easy and remember that this should be a "light" run.   

So many things in life to find joy in!  Running helps me do just that...find joy.  It helps keep me balanced so I can focus on the important things in life that I might otherwise miss out on. What brings you joy?

Amanda