The Little Things
September 12, 2013

Another thursday, another day to focus on thankfulness. I did much better being aware of provisions and blessings in my life, and even in a lousy moment these thoughts bring a smile to my face! I guess that’s part of the “healthy” part of focusing on gratitude. Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

I’m thankful for this heat wave! I know these warm moments are on their way out soon, and I’m thankful for the heat and sunshine while they last! It’s nice to see the sunshine on the way to and from work, as well as during my lunch hour when I sit outside. The humidity I could do without; it’s making my runs so much more difficult! The sun and heat though, can definitely stay.

I’m thankful for bike rides and for doing things I never thought I would do! I wrote an entire post to this here, but in short, I’m so happy to have my bike at my house! I’ve been enjoying bike rides after work, and it’s such a great self-care tool to have!

I’m thankful for so many awesome people in my life. Every single day in the last week I’ve felt overcome with gratitude for the people in my life. These people are awesome listeners full of wisdom, as well as people who know how to bring laughter into my life. I’m so lucky to have the people I do.

I’m thankful I made it in time to teach my first pilates class! There was a mix up in times and I almost missed the start of my first class! You can read all about the mix up and how I recovered from it here.

I’m thankful for Almonds. I have to be honest: this ended up on my list because I’m eating almonds right now. I wouldn’t have thought of it otherwise, but I really do love them! They are easy to carry pretty much anywhere, and they make the perfect delicious and healthy snack!

I’m thankful for fall sports! I love watching fall sports, especially college soccer games! I’m off to a game right now!

Now it’s your turn to share! What are you feeling thankful for today?

September 11, 2013

After only having a bike to ride during the summers for the last two summers, I now have a bike in the actual state in which I live! I couldn’t be more excited to have a bike that I can hop on whenever I want!

photoIsn’t Old Blue pretty? 🙂 You might remember him from this bike ride (where I set my current PDR for biking!), and I was able to bring him back home with me. I really love the fact that he came with two water bottle holders on him. I bring gatorade on longer rides (or rides that are hotter) due to my POTS, so it’s nice to be able to bring both that and water.

A you might remember, I went over a decade without being on a bike. I got back on my bike because I won an entry into a triathlon, but I still knew almost nothing about biking. Now, admittedly, I still know very little about biking, but I know much more than I did even in June of this year. So now I’m doing all sorts of things that I didn’t think I would ever do. I’ve learned how to take on and off my front tire, how to get it into my trunk, how to check that the brakes are appropriately tight/aligned with the wheel, and I’ve been out on the trail on my own. Now these things aren’t big things at all, but for someone who, when this blog was started, never ever ever wanted to get on a bike again, these things are huge. Not only am I OK getting on a bike, but I am willing to drive an hour round trip to a trail and go through the trouble of putting tires on and off, packing fuel, etc…

There are plenty of things every year that we feel proud of ourselves for, and I guess this is one of them for me. While I’m not doing anything special at all, for me this constitutes a huge mental hurdle that I’ve jumped over; a huge fear conquered. To me, that’s huge. I want to never stop pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and to me, this is an example of that.

*Also, in memory of September 11th, you can read my post here. Also this post about The Survivor Tree at Ground Zero is a great reminder.

Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever conquered a fear before? (is so- share!) What’s something you would like to do but are nervous about trying? Where were you September 11, 2001?

September 10, 2013

So, today I taught my first pilates class! You might remember that bak in July I got certified in Pilates Barre, but didn’t have a place in which to work. A few weeks ago I emailed a place on a whim, and after a few meetings, I had the job! I’m teaching two mornings a week, and the place is close to my job so it makes for very convenient mornings!

This morning I headed out to the studio, planning to get there 20 minutes before class started to familiarize myself with the room. Well, when I got there there were already about 6 people sitting in the room waiting for me. I thought “boy- these people are really eager to move this morning!” but then worried I’d made some mistake. I went out to check the signs, and the class started 15 minutes earlier then the studio had communicated to me! (I was told that class started at 6:15, but what they communicated to the students was 6!). Luckily I was ready to go and didn’t need to do much prep work at all, but it certainly threw me, especially since it was my first class! I guess my “Type A”-ness came in handy today! Time to roll with it and be flexible!

The first 20 minutes I gave a basic history of pilates, introduced myself quickly, and walked through the proper connections that participants should use throughout the exercises (along with the cues I’d be giving). After that we spent 40 minutes actually doing pilates! It was great fun watching people who had done pilates before finally get an appropriate connection they hadn’t done before, as well as to get the new people starting to move.

I’m planning to have some of my classes be straight mat work and some to be barre work, but no matter what I’ll be holding them accountable for all the appropriate connections that are needed to make pilates the best workout that it can be!

photoAfter my first class!

The class flew by and before I knew it I was leading them through the cool down stretches. I think the class went pretty well, at least I felt good about it! I’m sure the more I do it the more comfortable I will be, and the better I will be at explaining things. I love pilates so much (I wrote all about it here– weeks before I had even thought of doing any training or certification in it!), and I hope I can pass my love of it onto others as well.

So today, I did something that a few months ago I hadn’t even considered, and now I can officially say that I’m a pilates instructor!

Now it’s your turn to share! I’d like to know what makes a class “good” in your mind? What sort of music do you like while doing pilates?

September 9, 2013

I’ve only talked about the idea of resiliency once (i think!) on the blog, and it was in discussing the Survivor Tree. Today I’m talking about resilience in terms of working on developing it for ourselves.

When we’re talking about resilience, we’re talking about the ability to bounce back or rebound after a stress or problem in life. Think of stretching a rubber band and letting it snap back into shape. That’s what resilient people do: in the face of trouble they might be stretched and knocked around, but they’ll stretch back to their original shape. Resilience is an ongoing process, and the goal is to become increasingly resilient throughout our life time.

There are many things we can do to develop higher levels of resilience within ourselves, and while it is some work in the moment, it will serve you well in the future. One of these things we can do is identifying role models for ourselves who embody the ideas of resilience in some way. This can be a person who is alive or dead, whom you personally know or someone you just admire. If they are alive, sit down and talk to them about their life. Get to know their thoughts patterns and behaviors that lead to them living a resilient life style. If you don’t personally know them, then research their life! Read books or articles and figure out how to emulate their actions and try to apply it to your own life. We’re all different people so things will look different in each of our lives, but examples of those who are resilient can be a great asset to our own development.

Here are a few examples of famous individuals:

Of course this just scratches the surface, but hopefully the list serves to get you thinking. Think of your neighbors, friends, family members, or co-workers as well, and start to identify what sort of characteristics of resiliency they encompass.

Now it’s your turn to share! Who do you know that might be considered a resilient person? How can you learn lessons from their lives to apply to your own?

September 8, 2013

This week was an exciting week because, for the first time, I actually have a bike where I’m currently living! No other running training cycle has included on the road biking (I usually just biked on a stationary bike at the gym once a week), and I’m so excited for this! This week felt like a nice balance of exercising to me, which was nice. My tendinitis is about the same as ever, but I’m able to get through my runs without much pain. My IT band pain is still worse than my tendinitis, but at least I know that I’m not doing any further damage with that! After running naked this summer, it’s been nice to be able to track my pace and push myself a bit. Here’s how the week looked:

Work was crazy this week and I worked extra hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I was happy to still move a bit Wednesday after work. I also noticed that my legs were feeling tired with back to back rides, so my long run was moved from yesterday to today.

Now it’s your turn to share! Did you do anything new or different this week? Do you own a bike? 

September 6, 2013

Happy Friday! I finally got to bike after work yesterday, and it was such a wonderfully relaxing evening! After the week I had, I needed it! Even with working longer hours at work, I still managed to find some time for some fun reading. Here are some interesting articles I’ve read lately:

The 26 Stages of Taking Up Running: So funny… and so true!

Catch-Up Sleep Won’t Make Your Brain Work Any Better, Small Study Suggests: Ah… the infamous sleep debt.

How I Lost 70 pounds in 30 Days! (not really): This is a great reminder regarding looking at before and after pictures online.

14 Signs You’re Definitely In Therapy: The counselor in me smiled and laughed throughout this article. Maybe some of you can relate?

Popular Yogurt Pulled from Shelves: Check your chobani asap!!

Text Claw: How to help keep your hand healthy when using your smart phone.

The Case Against Perfectionism (and how it impacts our work)

Another Brain Benefit of Sleep

Whooping Cough Reaches Epidemic Level in Texas

Link up your favorite post from the week!

September 5, 2013

How many of you are still on the hunt for provisions and blessings in your life? I have to admit that I totally forgot about it this past weekend, but on Monday evening I remembered and have been on the hunt again. Here’s what I’m thankful for right now:

I’m thankful for a fun weekend at a soccer tournament. Both days were pretty fantastic weather wise, and it was nice to sit out with lots of people I knew to cheer on our team!

I’m thankful for safety on the road. I spent about 10 hours driving for the soccer tournament this weekend, and as always I am always so grateful for safety after a long trip.

I’m thankful for the provision of ice! Not only does it make drinks delicious, but I can’t imagine exercising without ice. I love having ice packs to throw on random body parts and ice chunks to throw into the tub for ice baths! Seriously- ice is such a luxury item in so many ways, and I definitely take it for granted.

I’m thankful for fans. Again, another “luxury item” that I take SO much for granted but am very thankful for in my life. The series of little things we have can make our lives so much more comfortable, and the fact that a fan is blowing on me right now as I type this is just fantastic!

I’m thankful for my bike! I finally have my bike in the state that I live, and I can’t be more excited about it! I’m going to try to go on a quick little ride today.

Now it’s your turn to share! What are you feeling thankful for today? What’s a little convenience in your life that makes living much more comfortable? 

September 4, 2013

In January I wrote Part 1 of my journey and in April I wrote Part 2 (all about my first run in 2010), so I figured it was about time for the next part of my journey. If you’ve missed either of the past posts, click above to catch up first!

When I left off I had just written the following words: “I’m glad I didn’t give up after that first .75 of a mile. Getting to a place where I could run was a long process…” So after almost passing out on that first .75 mile run, how did I get to a place where I could manage to run? Well, I knew very little about running, but I knew there was a “thing” where you could walk and run and slowly build up to being able to run the distance that you wanted. So, that’s pretty much what I did.

Starting in February of 2011 I would go out once every week or two for something I called the “run-walk”. I would walk for a couple minutes and then run for 30-40 seconds before walking again. Over the next four months I continued at that pace and decided that I might actually be interested in this whole “running thing”. In June of 2011 I was at my parents gym (their running track is small and 9 laps equals a mile), and I completed 4 miles with every other lap either running or walking (so I ran 1/9 of a mile at a time followed by 1/9 of a mile walk). That was the moment that I really, truly believed that I could actually run, and that maybe I would actually really enjoy it.

The thing is, in order to get myself to a place where I felt like I could run, I had to let go of the desire for the immediate success as well as comparison to other people. I spent MONTHS running very short amounts of time in between periods of walking (remember, POTS was a contributing factor to my slow base building), so I had to give up the idea of immediate gratification in order to achieve what I actually wanted. Also, comparing myself to others who were running would’ve seriously gotten me down on myself and probably would’ve quit before I ever hit that day in June.

If you want to become a runner but don’t think you’ll be able to do it, start slowly like I did and keep your eyes focused on the goal instead of on others. Do the “run walks” or search out the couch to 5k program.

For me, my journey to running started with one failed run and months of slowly, slowly building up the length of my running segments. It’s not really the dream when it comes to running, is it? But without that I don’t think I would’ve ever actually become a runner. But of course this isn’t the end of the story either, and that’s for a different day.

My encouragement to you, whether running, another form of exercise, or some other areas in life, is to not need the instant success or gratification, but keep your eyes focused on the goal that you want, be willing to put in the hard work to get you there, and avoid the comparison trap!

Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever given up on something that you wanted because it wasn’t immediately easy for you? 

September 3, 2013

I have a confession to make: I’ve been running naked all summer and I’ve really enjoy it! It’s been freeing, and it’s nice to run without the extra weight to weigh me down.

Ok, you dirty people- minds out of the gutter!! This summer I’ve done every run without my Garmin and I’ve really enjoyed it. In fact, the last time I strapped my Garmin around my wrist was my half marathon at the beginning of May! I even trained for and completed my second sprint triathlon without my Garmin. With my diagnosis of posterior tibial tendinitis, it’s been nice to relax and not be driven by numbers as I run.

The fact of the matter is that I run because it’s fun. Even though I want to improve and want to be faster, if I’m not enjoying it then I won’t do it anymore. I know that burnout can happen easily, so I decided to take the summer off from looking at my watch as I run and just enjoy my runs for what they are. I did lose a bit of speed this summer, but I usually do due to having to slow my pace down because of POTS. I’ve had my runkeeper going just so I could count up my total miles, but that’s it.

But now training has officially started for my fourth half marathon, and with that comes putting my Garmin on for runs once again. A week ago I completed a 4.8 mile run with my Garmin, and noticed that I did run at a faster pace while wearing it, which is nice after a summer of slow miles 🙂

Now it’s your turn to share! Do you ever “run naked”? What is it that keeps you so connected to your Garmin? 

September 2, 2013

Our thoughts have a CRAZY amount of control over our emotions and our behaviors (I wrote all about the connection between the three things in a post here). In so many ways (physically, relationally, mentally, behaviorally), we believe that we can’t do something, so we don’t. Even if we try, we don’t truly throw ourselves into it, simply because we believe that we are, in some way, limited. I was reading a recent Runner’s World magazine (i can’t remember what month!), and I stumbled upon the following quote that I wanted to share with all of you:

Perceived limitations

While this quote specifically discusses the physical, like I mentioned above, I think it can be true of the behavioral, relational, and mental/emotional as well. This is something that I end up hitting with most clients, and it’s always of interest to me to see what exactly it is that makes them give up their perceived limitations and push forward. That moment where we release our grasp on those perceptions is the moment we gain the freedom to grow, attain new dreams, and to push harder than we have before.

My challenge to you: spend a bit of time this next week looking at what your perceived limitations in life are. What might happen if you let go of those perceived limitations?

Now it’s your turn to share! What are some of the perceived limitations that you have? Running was definitely one of mine, and I wrote an entire post about getting over that limitation here!