Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Grown Up Christmas List

Growing up, I was that child who always loved Christmas.  Thanksgiving will always be my favorite holiday but Christmas is a close second.  I love the decorations, the music, and gathering with my family to celebrate this special time of year.  I would sneak down every morning before everyone else was up in my house and see what Santa brought.  I was literally too excited to sleep (maybe one day I'll grow out of that but let's be real- probs not) because I couldn't wait for the magic of Christmas morning.  As I grew older Santa got smarter and started wrapping the presents so I couldn't sneak downstairs to peak.  I loved watching people open presents I got excited shopping for.  As the years pass and I don't live 7 minutes away anymore, the answer to the question, "What do you want for Christmas?" has become really easy.  I want time with my family and friends.  I feel as though my time is limited whenever I'm home and I want to make the most of every second.

At my spin studio, we started a 25 days of Christmas challenge where my incredible boss emails us a daily challenge of something extra to do for the holidays.  A few days ago our daily challenge was an email with this link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86qAkvaCgso) about giving presence. I love this video.  Too many times I've sat at a table with family or friends and everyone has their phone out.  Of course there's a time and place for that but enjoying the people around you is even better.  While I know our phones are vital for communication, my favorite memories are the ones where I don't have my phone out for anything but taking pictures.  While this entire post is not directly fitness related, it's extremely health related.  This past week I've had the opportunity to help take care of my recovering grandfather.  He has always been an advocate for spending quality time with people and for taking care of his health.  Only 12 days after his operation and he can't wait to get back to the gym to sweat it out.  I am so incredibly grateful that he has taken such good care of himself physically throughout the years.  It has been incredibly important to his speedy recovery.  I can't wait to play golf with him again.

Here's to your happy holidays! I hope that you take the challenge to #givepresence.




Monday, December 8, 2014

"Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all."

I grew up excessively watching movies over and over again.  I was that kid who could watch the same movie literally every day (for at least 2-3 months) and never get sick of it.  It all began with Beauty and the Beast.  I can still quote lines and songs from it without dropping a beat.  Other favorites throughout the years were The Parent Trap and Princess Diaries.  The last one I excessively watched (besides Harry Potter because that has it's own category) was Pride and Prejudice.  Younger me would love to put these quotes into AIM away messages (oh way back in the day) and see who could get my references.  I always loved when one of my favorite characters accurately spoke the words I never could.

Fear can consume you.  It can limit you to not do the amazing things you are more than capable of.  Courage is fear's worst nightmare.  Courage is knowing that something else is more important than that thing that scares you.  I was raised to be courageous in all that I do and yet some fears still exist. My mom has always said fear means that you care about something.  Fear is a scary word.  That being said, 13.1 miles scares the living day lights out of me.

I don't like living in fear.  I like living with the thrill of the possibilities of what's yet to come.  I mean some fears I simply avoid at all costs and run from, but who doesn't? When I first outlined my training schedule that put that big scary 13.1 miles into perspective.  Breaking down a fear into small reasonable goals is how I find myself solving problems.  Big scary terrifying impossible take home exam of this semester for example? Broke that baby down into sections and puzzle pieces that somewhat came together (my brain is exhausted).  Big scary situation where I was moving somewhere I didn't know anyone almost a year and a half ago? Broke that down by taking it day by day.  Big scary fear of snakes? Yeah that one's not going anywhere.  I used to live completely in the future and I'm beyond thankful now that I usually I can't see past the end of the week. While I know can plan for something months in advance I prefer to look at the world with the challenges directly in front of me so I can tackle them.  Breaking down that scary and terrifying 13.1 miles into a reasonable training plan helped make it not seem scary and seem conquerable.  After all I know I'm not the first and most certainly not the last crazy person to run 13.1 miles straight.

While I had my training in place, the hectic crazy schedule of finals week and the Thanksgiving holidays knocked my usual training routine.  My cross training changed along with my eating habits. While I enjoy eating as clean as possible, I've eaten out more in the past 2 weeks than I think I did the entire semester.  That combined with the stress and sticky situations that kept piling up over the past week, my training suffered.  I tried to put mind over matter and block it out, but unfortunately all it resulted in was 2 weeks of awful runs and a growing fear of that 13.1 miles.  The good news is my race is still about 6 weeks away and I spoiled myself with a little late birthday present (hello Garmin Forerunner 220 I've been eyeing since before I was ever really a runner!) to help give me a little extra motivation.  I'm beyond ready to put the bad behind and focus on the task in front of me and take it week by week to show that 13.1 miles whose in charge!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Ready-Set-Focus

As I start my 25th finals week (why yes, I've been in school a really long time), focus is the most common word out of my mouth.  It's during this grueling week where I always end up talking to myself and giving myself that self loving nudge to focus. Everytime I get distracted I literally stop and say, "Focus."  Putting my game face on is always a challenge as I eagerly await what's coming next.

While I'm trying to focus on my exam material, I check how my fantasy teams are doing (Decker- I really needed you to pull through this week), I do some Facebook stalking, I avoid doing my laundry, I research new vacation spots, I decorate my Christmas tree, I make lists of all the things I can't wait to do once I'm not studying, and eventually buckle down and get to work.  It's a pattern I've fallen into and I know the stages pretty well.  My study week also has stages that involve the initial "I've got this attitude" that progresses into the stress/mental breakdown/crying/questioning my life choices/"I can't do this" and then moves into the "Let's eat everything in sight" stage before the final stage of "Let's just get in there and knock it out".  This week is different because I've managed to skip the second step.  My focus is not quite in the final stage and I was already eating everything in sight.

My finals week phases remind me of my training phases along this fitness journey.  While some programs have pushed me more than others, I know each one has really helped me step up to the plate and push myself just a little bit further.  Since I've been focusing on increasing my distance and improving my time (even though my main goal for this half is just to finish it- competitive me disagrees and wants an impressive time) I've been popping in old workout routines for cross training.  I always love a good "Back and Bis" or "Shoulders and Arms" from P90X.  As I up my weight and reps (each time making me feel extremely accomplished) I constantly stop and think how much stronger I am now then I was a year ago.  The Emily from a year ago could not lift the amount of weight I can now.  The Emily from a year ago could not hold a plank for 10 minutes.  The Emily from a year ago would not ever have thought she could run a half marathon.  While I've come so far since I started, I get so excited about all of the things I want to do.  After my half I am especially excited to see what Shaun T cooked up with Insanity Max 30.  I keep planning all of these exciting next steps when I really need to stop and focus on the task at hand.   I've gotten to the point where I truly enjoy my runs because they allow me to dial in a focus on breathing.  They allow me to stay centered on the task at hand.

Here's to focusing on one thing at a time!