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This week for my nails, I chose a classic color- Essie’s Chinchilly.
I’ve had this color since the fall of 2012, and I really like it. I actually wish it was a little darker than it is, but I think that Chinchilly is an ideal fall color! One coat is far too light, but two coats definitely covers my nails. I’ve never tried a third coat to see what it does to the color. This is an ideal neutral color. I decided to add a little extra zazz to it, and added a very light coat of Essie’s “Sparkle on Top”.
(also- how pretty are those flowers?! I’m feeling sad that I’m down to the last few weeks before they will likely die. SAD!)
Not a great close up of my nails (oops- sorry). Those boots are new this season, and I’m loving them!
And now a few Friday Facts!
1. On Sunday evening I made one of my favorite fall recipes- a hearty fall soup! I “invented” this recipe last fall, and have been eagerly waiting for a chance to make it again! I’ve been eating it for dinners all week. It’s healthy and SO delicious! Plus- it’s so convenient to just heat up a bowl of it after a long day!
2. My parents came down at the end of last week, and they brought some treats! They brought me two bags of pumpkin flavored items from Trader Joe’s, which I’m SO happy about! They also brought down this towel, which reminds me of my little Pooky who died this summer. They know me so well, and I smile every time I see it hanging in my bathroom.
3. My parents are moving, so they brought down 3 or 4 boxes of stuff for me to go through (meaning- they just don’t want it to sit around their house anymore). I haven’t had the time to go through everything yet, but I did go through one box. I found my corsage from homecoming over a decade ago! Clearly that’s not something important for me to save now, but I feel a little strange getting rid of something I’ve had for so long (but I’m working on having more freedom from stuff, so I’ll toss it out…)
4. Yesterday, I filled up with gas for $2.88. It was the only gas station in the entire city that was still that low- the rest were up at $3.18. Some people were still going to the gas stations that were higher- why?! I don’t understand…
5. These last two weeks I’ve been learning a good, LOOONNNGGG lesson in flexibility! I need to do an entire post on it next week, but my “crisis work” for my job has certainly made my life interesting. I’m so happy to have the job that I have though!
Now it’s your turn to share! Tell me on random friday fact about your life!
I’m thankful for Octobers. I wrote a whole post on this earlier this week, but I love walks in the sunshine as the leaves are turning colors, I love delicious fall flavors and scents, and love all the pumpkins and gourds that people have out!
I’m thankful that I am running again. I’m not sure how well it’ll go before or during my race, but the bigger picture is that I am running again, and so happy to be doing it!
I’m thankful for pumpkin flavored creamer. I used to dump massive amounts of creamer in my coffee, but now I gag a little bit with it that sweet. Even with putting in less creamer, though (by “less”, I mean more equivalent to a serving size, instead of 4-5 serving sizes like I did before), I LOVE pumpkin spice flavoring in my coffee!
I’m thankful that gas is cheap right now! Or… at least cheaper. Last Friday I gleefully filled up my car at $2.99 a gallon! I paid almost 80 cents more per gallon at one point this summer, so I am REALLY happy to see this drop in price!
I’m thankful for everyone who donated to my team in training fundraising! I hit my 500 dollar fundraising goal this week, and I’m so happy. Whether it was through the bucket shake a few weekends ago, or my “in real life” friends, or those of you I’ve connected with via social media, I am SO thankful for every dollar that has come in! I’m so happy to be able to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! THANK YOU for donating!
Now it’s your turn to share! What are you feeling thankful for today?
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Implementing Healthy Boundaries. Boundaries are the foundation of having a healthy relationship with others and ourselves, so without them, we can’t truly have healthy relationships. Boundaries mean that we are responsible for our own thoughts, feelings, and actions, and we don’t try to control these things in others. We recognize our influence vs. our ownership, and we don’t mix those two up. We learn to respect the no from others and ourselves (no means no, and yes means yes), and we own our own reactions. Boundaries can be a bit difficult to implement, but they lead to a HUGE amount of freedom and health in life. Boundaries are absolutely critical to healthy living.
Starting A Regular Practice of Gratitude. A regular practice of gratitude has completely changed my life. A practice of gratitude doesn’t mean that we discount the hard or negative things in life, but it means that we train ourselves to focus on the positive as well. The fact is that it seems that our minds automatically hold onto the negative things in our life, and all of life isn’t negative. Training ourselves to balance out the negative with the positive in our lives allows us to live more aligned with reality, which helps our mood quite a bit. You can read more about cultivating a practice of gratitude here.
Setting Yourself Up For Success (Getting Rid of Excuses). When it comes to behavior change, we need to take a look at our current behavior and get to know it, so we know what influences it (and what sort of structure we need to create for change). Once we know what makes behavior change difficult, we need to create a structure that will set ourselves up for success! Being proactive in dealing with these excuses can make a HUGE difference in working towards our goals.
Learning To Identify & Challenge Irrational Thoughts & Cognitive Distortions. The words and thought patterns that we use can completely influence how we feel and how we behave in our lives. Cognitive distortions such as black and white thinking, as well as catastrophizing language can create a good amount of stress, anger, anxiety, and depression in our lives. Using things like the REBT Self Help Form and The Thought Record can help us decrease unhelpful and unhealthy language.
Learning To Be Present Where You Are At (Practicing Mindfulness). Learning to be present and engaged in the moment has definitely been helpful in decreasing my overall stress. Mindfulness is about being fully engaged in and experiencing the present moment. While we can’t do this for too long at any given moment, the small moments of mindfulness help us connect to ourselves and enjoy the moment that we are in instead of engaging in worry and stress about the past or the future. Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and check in with your own body- what are you breathing and experiencing? Sometimes I pause outside, look at something beautiful, slow my breathing, and try to truly and deeply take in the moment. It’s a beautiful experience.
I’ve worked pretty hard over the past 5-6 years to implement each of these things in my life, and while I’m certainly not perfect at any of them, I’ve noticed HUGE benefits in my overall physical and mental health as a result. I challenge you to pick one of these things on this list and try to implement it into your life over the next few weeks. As you work, sit back and enjoy the changes you experience! Good luck!
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s one “healthy habit” you’ve implemented that you feel has changed your life?
I was a little nervous about how I would feel, both because I took such a long time off from any running, and because I didn’t know how my shin splints would feel. Within about 2 minutes I had a HUGE smile on my face, and I was so happy to be running again. That didn’t stop the entire 1.6 miles that I ran. I tried to keep myself from going out too fast, so I hovered around an 11:40 pace for that distance. The weather was fantastic- gray and in the 50s, and the changing leaves were beautiful.
My parents were visiting me for the day, so they came out on my run too. I took them on a back road that I would never run by myself, which was fun, and I got to experience some truly beautiful scenery. I could have taken some fantastic pictures, but instead I tried to allow myself to fully enjoy the colors and the fact that I was running again!
My shin splints didn’t bother me in the slightest, and they haven’t bothered me since that time either!
One thing is of actual concern to me though! While I didn’t have any cramps during the run, about 15 minutes after the muscles on the outside of both of my shins started cramping up a bit, and that lasted for about an hour and a half. I’m a little worried that this is a sign of cramps to come during my race (as that’s what happened last year).
I have just under two weeks until my race now, so obviously I can’t really do any long runs before my race, and I feel sad about it. I feel sad about how the training cycle ended up.
But for now, I celebrated my first run back again! 🙂
It’s sad to think about a world where Octobers and beautiful fall weather doesn’t exist. So with that, I share with you some of my favorite October things.
I’m such a big fan of beautiful fall nature walks. Unlike summer, you don’t sweat and aren’t uncomfortable, and you have some pretty awesome views to look at.
Changing Leaves
Dried Cornfields
It’s sort of magical, isn’t it?
I’m also a fan of awesome fall foods! I love all things pumpkin and apple. Give me delicious pumpkin oatmeal and apple cinnamon french toast, and I’m a happy girl.
These are pumpkin donut muffins. They’ve changed my life.
I also love candy corn mixes. YUM.
And of course more beautiful scenery. Come on- it’s gorgeous!
Fall, with its cooler temperature, seems to lead to much prettier sunrises and sunsets. It’s not hard to get out of bed when this is waiting for me:
And I’ve talked about how much I’ve enjoyed the changes in biking from summer to fall. I mean, look at this view:
One of my 14 in 2014 challenges is to be present, and this month I’ve been really focusing on trying to be present, trying to inhale all that fall has to offer. I try to pause and breathe deeply as I look at the beautiful changing leaves. I try to shut out all the things I have to do, the thoughts of yesterday and tomorrow, and try to allow the experience to fill me completely, if for just a moment. I love it, and I love October.
Now it’s your turn to share! What’re some of your favorite things about fall?
Happy Sunday! This week didn’t exactly turn out as I had hoped, but that is completely fine. Life is like that, right? As a Mental Health Counselor, there are sometimes crises that pop up, and that takes a lot more time than an average week. That’s definitely ok, and I’m so happy to be doing what I do. BUT, in those weeks, it definitely doesn’t leave much time to exercise. This week, I worked more than 8 hours each day. This is what it looked like: 9 hour day, 19 hour work day, 10.5 hour work day, 11.5 hour work day, and 9 hour work day. On Saturday I ended up having to work about 5 hours, and today I’ll work more hours as well. I’m solidly above 60 hours this week, and it’s been all hours of the day and night, so that’s been unhelpful. I’ve rolled with it as best as I can, but I couldn’t make exercise happen at all by the end of the week, and that’s just fine. I just wish this isn’t what my supposed-to-be “peak week” of half marathon training actually looked like:
- Friday (10/10): REST
- Saturday: 10.2 mile bike, 1.2 mile walk
- Sunday: 45 minutes pilates, 1.5 mile walk
- Monday: 2 mile walk
- Tuesday: 3.1 mile elliptical, strength training (arms)
- Wednesday: Unplanned rest due to work crisis
- Thursday: Unplanned rest day due to work crisis
Like last week, I did the elliptical to try to get in some extra cardio. It’s FINE, but I don’t love the elliptical. I actually ran again this past Friday (which is the day after this current “week” ended), and I was so happy to be running once again!
So, all in all, this week has been good, but totally different than I had planned on- but that’s life!
This color is a dark purple with a hint of burgundy (which you can just barely see around the edges), but almost looks black in certain lights. I LOVE it and feel that this shade, while more generic, is just beautiful. It reminded me a lot of OPI’s “Lincoln Park After Dark”, which is one of my winter favorites. This polish held well, and there was no chipping 4 days later, even after I did dishes and scrubbed the bath tub!
Here are some fun friday facts for the day:
1. Back in 2007, my go to drink for hot and cold weather was chai tea. Late in 2007 I started to switch it up, and never really went back… until May. I am once again obsessed with Chai Tea Lattes. Anyone else?
2. I am obsessed with Taylor Swift’s new song “Out Of The Woods”, and have listened to it a few times every day. I can’t wait for it to be put up on spotify so I can put it on a barre playlist immediately.
3. This weekend I spent most of Saturday afternoon and evening watching footage from the Kona Ironman. I get emotional watching people cross the finish line. I’m just so incredibly impressed.
4. According to my time hop, Wednesday was my 3 year anniversary of my first race. I’ve so appreciated the running journey I’ve been on for the last 3 years 🙂
5. I can’t even help it- I just love things that are seasonal. Decorations, clothing, nail polish, drinks- I’m all about it 🙂
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s one of your favorite “fall season” items?
Happy Thursday! This is my 98th “Thankful Thursday” post, but that doesn’t include all the random Thursdays I’ve included other words in my Thankful Thursday title, which means I’m well over 100 Thankful Thursday posts! Exciting, right? So here’s what I’m thankful for today:
I’m thankful for the opportunity I had to do barre training, and the opportunity I now have to teach. I really wish I could teach more classes than I do right now, but with my schedule, that’s not really possible. Regardless of that, I love that I do get to teach and move in that way! Songs like those on my most recent playlist make it even more fun!
I’m thankful that I’ve still been able to ride my bike! I miss the beautiful days of summer to ride, but I’m thankful that, while wearing lots more layers, I’ve been able to continue riding (even if it is less frequent/much shorter distances). Crisp fall riding has been fun too.
I’m thankful for phone chargers. It’s been my turn to deal with crises at work this week, and having a cell phone makes it SO much easier to communicate with the people I need. WIth that, though is the phone charger. Something so little that we don’t often think about it, but something that’s SO necessary. I am now trying to remember to bring my charger in my purse so I have it for whatever situation pops up. In mental health, it can definitely be unpredictable!
I’m thankful for extra unexpected moments to get things done. This week has been no joke. My Monday-Wednesday schedule has been the following: 9 hour work day, 19 hour work day, 10 hour work day. Today (Thursday) I’ll work almost 10 hours as well. And then there’s Friday… and the weekend, and have plenty of work I need to catch up on then as well. SO. I am definitely hitting a very high weekly total for work hours. In the middle, I’m finding extra little moments. A client comes 5 minutes late, giving me a little extra breathing room. I get a cancellation, and can do a bit of pilates in my office or head to the gym and lift. I was able to fit in a quick appointment at the flu shot clinic so I could go during my lunch break yesterday. These little moments allow for good self care in the middle of lots of work!
I’m thankful for awesome co-workers and counseling friends. I can’t imagine being in this profession without having fantastic people around me, and I’m thankful for those who are in my life right now!
Now it’s your turn to share! What are you thankful for today?
Here’s how the songs are broken up in class:
Warm Up
- Human
Pilates Section
- Pompeii
- This Is How We Roll
- Burning Gold
Planks Section
- Neon Lights
Cardio Section
- Shake It Off
- Lights (just through the first minute)
Barre Section
- Lights (after the first minute of the song)
- Problem
- Timber
- Somewhere In My Car
- Bang Bang
- Showstopper
- Burn
Cool Down
- Cop Car
- A Thousand Years
If you’re interested in other lists, check out Playlist #1 and Playlist #2.
Now it’s your turn to share! What are your favorite workout songs right now?
