Motivation Monday/ Planksgiving update

Happy Monday! I had the day off today, which was refreshing after an unusually busy weekend. Most of my day was spent cleaning (prep for Christmas!) and shopping. I got GREAT deals tonight, including a new set of sheets for my bed, a Madeleines pan (I just saw a chef use one to make Madeleines on Food Network, and I HAD to have one), a new EOS lip balm (I am addicted), new mascara, a new Food Network roaster for Mother for Thanksgiving, and Taylor Swift's new album (go ahead, judge). As I remarked to Mother, I haven't bought a new CD for myself in a long time, so it's nice to be able to listen to new music and not buy CDs track by track via iTunes.

I'll start with the Planksgiving update. If you haven't read in my previous blog post, I am doing an exercise challenge this month called "Planksgiving". Basically, I hold planks for a certain amount of time each day. It started at 30 secs on November 1, and by November 30, I will be up to 3 minutes. I just finished today's plank, which was actually yesterday's, since I had to play catch-up. Today was supposed to be a rest day, but oh well. I've gotten up to 50 seconds, and brutal merciful gracious it hurts. But don't worry...tomorrow I get to look forward to a 1-minute plank! *sarcasm*

Looking back at past blog posts, I see that I have not updated my weight in some time. There is a good reason for that. Planet Fitness does not believe in putting scales in their gym (their whole "no gym-timidation" thing), which I totally understand and appreciate, but it also makes it hard for people (like me) who rely on a weight check at least once a month. And of course, my scale at home only goes to 395 pounds. Instead, I will have to rely on measurements, and soon those will be on my blog.

Lastly, time for motivation:

~~Love your body and the weight will take care of itself~~

Have a great week.

New Goal Sunday

What a weird/rough/good/disappointing/happy week. This past week has been a roller coaster of emotions, some good and some bad. I'll start with the bad (and get that out of the way):

1.) My sleep schedule is off...WAY off. I've been sleeping night after night on the couch in our den, and that does not help. Here's how bad it's gotten. Two nights in a row now, I've woken up around 2:30-2:45, stayed up for an hour watching TV, and then finally drifted off to sleep. Last night was the worst. I fell asleep around 8:30 (the fact that I fall asleep really early like that doesn't help either). I woke up at 2:45 and stayed up until 4 a.m. I couldn't get to sleep, and it was for a terrible reason. I watched TV (anyone remember the Disney movie "Quints"?! It was on at 3:30!), but I turned it off around 3:45. I stayed up until 4 crying, literally sobbing quietly. I was reliving the day Uncle passed over and over in my head, thinking about everything I could have--no, should have--said that day. I should have done this, I should have said that. It was like I was trying to hurt myself again and again, but I couldn't stop these thoughts from creeping into my mind. 

I'm finally going back up to my bed. Hopefully, these issues won't happen again.

2.) It's been an up and down week in terms of work. I worked three days and had two days off. The three days that I worked had their ups and downs. 

3.) I swear it's not Sunday yet. It can't be. The weekend just started! (Get it? My weekend flew by.)

Now to the good (and I mean VERY good):

1.) I got to the gym today! For some reason, getting to the gym first thing on a Sunday morning makes my week (or at least my Sunday) get a good head start. 

2.) For the first time in at least 10 years, I have cut my frozen drink consumption to 1 drink a week. I have NEVER been able to do that since I started drinking frozen drinks over 10 years ago. I couldn't believe it! That's gotta be sone willpower I have.

Now it's time for a new goal! I'm actually sticking with my goal from last week. I've heard that it takes 2 weeks for a habit to kick in, so I want this habit of one frozen drink a week to have time to set in. 

My goal for this week: 1 frozen drink this week

Lesson learned from accomplishing this goal: I need to schedule my day and time to get my drink, like an appointment. Then, I truly look forward to it, and if it's not written in my schedule, I can't go get it.

Have a great week!

Motivation Monday

Ugh. Mondays. 

I wanted to post this quickly before I got ready. It's Motivation Monday and here's my motivation for the week:

                   ~~~Small changes lead to big changes, and big changes lead to results~~~                        

Have a great week!

Happy Planks-giving

Here's hoping that last blog post didn't scare you off. This should be a much happier post. I don't like posting negative things about my life because I am a pessimist by nature and I feel that talking/writing negatively really feeds that habit.

Happy November! Where did the time go? I can't believe that in two months, it will be 2015, and soon after New Years, I'll be 25! A quarter (of a century) old! I guess I can have a quarter-life crisis now, right?

Speaking of a NEW month and a NEW year, I have joined a NEW gym in town called Planet Fitness. You might have heard of this from numerous TV ads ("judgement free zone" or from the TV show "The Biggest Loser". I don't watch the show that often (except for this year...have you SEEN Jessie?!! Yum), but I noticed that all of their gym equipment is purple (my favorite color). Then talks of this Planet Fitness (PF) kept swirling around town, and finally one opened seven minutes away. PF had a great opening month deal and I grabbed it as soon as I could. The parents also joined and now we go together (at least Mother and I do).

As for the title of this blog...well...I can explain.

I love a challenge. I've always been that way, and I don't know why, but I love proving people wrong. I found that out during my freshman year of college.

Every spring at UC, the piano department has a "board", or a test, to determine your abilities and to evaluate any progress made. You must memorize 30 minutes of music and perform it in a concert hall while the piano professors listen and take notes. If you succeed, you continue on; if not, you are out of the program and must re-audition in the fall to be accepted into CCM.

Practice is obviously important to memorize 30 minutes of music, but here's the thing. I don't practice. That's just not me. I am not one to sit at a piano and play for hours. I would practice approximately 5 minutes a day, at the most. It was the same thing in high school as well.

One day, I was practicing my board pieces in front of my piano professor, and he stopped me so we could talk. He asked me how much time weekly I devote to practicing, and I was honest. He told me he was disappointed that I didn't put in more of an effort to practice, especially if I wanted to be there so badly. He then said that he thought, judging by the way I played then, that I would not pass the board, and that I would have to re-audition in the fall for the piano program.

Hearing that was a major blow to my confidence. I knew I wasn't good, but not good enough to stay in the program? I had finally made it into my dream school, and now I would be out in one year? It couldn't happen.

I called my parents and I went home for the weekend. I practiced 6 hours Saturday, 6 hours Sunday, drove back, and practiced 2 hours Monday morning. Then it was board time.

I BLEW AWAY the piano professors (especially mine). They couldn't believe how much I had improved in one year. My professor came up to me afterwards and said that he didn't know what I did, but I had proven him wrong and he was glad.

That moment felt GREAT. Someone had given me a challenge, and I had not only completed it, but I had knocked it out of the ballpark. From then on, I loved getting challenges.

It just made sense to apply this to exercise, so for the month of November, I am doing the Happy "Planks-giving" challenge, in which I have to hold a plank for a certain amount of time each day. Yesterday was 20 secs and it was already a doozy, but I did it! Today is 30 secs, and by the end of the month, I will be holding planks for 3 minutes.

Wish me luck and Happy November!

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT "planking". Google it if you're not sure, but I am NOT planking. No sir.