Overcome Hills in Life

My Molly girl

This morning started with the alarm going off at 6:45....then 7:00 and again at 7:15 when I finally found the willpower to get out of bed and begin piling on the layers for my walk. The first in a series of walks. My husband came along and helped me with walking the puppies. We come down the street and come to my arch nemesis: a hill that is incredibly steep and two fold. About halfway up, there is a road that breaks off and continues an a perpendicular direction. That is the route we took, winded and feeling the burn in our legs already. We come back to the house, clean up and I make myself breakfast once I see my husband off to work. In this quiet moment of reflection, I began to think of how much in life that hill can represent.

My Nemesis....dum dum daaaaah

For the longest time, I would avoid walks because that hill is so daunting. When I go up the hill, I feel so tired and cannot continue up but rather cut to the side road and continue my direction in that way. By the time I get home, my legs are as jelly. But how much can this really be in life?

How many things do we come across in life that we feel intimidated by? Perhaps we do not even want to try the thing that intimidates us due to fearing failure. However, we cannot go through life avoiding things we do not want to face. And when we do face them, perhaps we do not have to take it all at once. Perhaps there is a side road we can take at first until we are ready to conquer the entire hill. Conquering this things in life should be treated similarly to running a marathon: you shouldn't expect to wake up one morning, having never gone running and expecting to win the entire race. We have to exercise ourselves and our abilities, taking small things to start and building to the biggest obstacle we face. That is my plan: start on the beginning of the hill until I am strong enough to take the whole hill at once.

But it is reward enough. To come home and look up at the clock and see that at 8:30 AM, though tired, I have already gone walking, taken a shower and preparing a breakfast is its own reward. This time last week, I would have just woken up and lazed in my pajamas until about 10. And breakfast was good this morning: honey-wheat toast with hazelnut spread, grits with cheese and tea with milk and sugar. Lunch is packed and I am just writing/talking with you all.

Yummy!

Myfitnesspal

Some tips if you want to take a calorie counting journey: find an app or program that works for you. My first go around in college I used Calorie Counter through about.com. Currently, I am using myfitnesspal an app my sister recommended to me. Both of them along with any other calorie counter apps, will take into account your current weight, your weight loss goal, your lifestyle and calculate how much you should eat a day and assist you in tracking not on your calories but other aspects of you meal as well (total fat, sodium, vitamins, etc). Enjoy today, look forward to tomorrow and revel in this thing called La Vie.

So Much to Reach for....

Here I sit, on a Saturday night, my husband stretched out beside me. May seem like a low key Saturday night but that is exactly what I enjoy after the work week. Next week starts a 10 day week for me followed by a 4 day weekend. I am still on second shift. One can only imagine how weary I might become in time.

So, my lifestyle has come into reflection recently. I thought about how in my long mornings, I laze about not being productive but then I end up feeling bad about myself and not fulfilled. I am perpetuating my own issues. I realized I had yet to set some New Years Resolutions so even it is almost a month late, here we go:

1) Counting Calories/Lifestyle change-In my final two years of college, I lost a great amount of weight simply by counting calories and working out. As you probably can imagine, with my hectic schedule and odd hours, I have quickly fallen away from what I felt good about. So, time to be back on track! This means monitoring my meals and what I intake. But this is a two-fold process-

2) Working and Walking it Out-While I may not have access to a gym, I have a steep hill in my backyard and a few blocks I can walk. If I get up earlier than I have been, I need to bring myself to find the willpower to force myself from bed and walking. Of course, the dogs would be coming with me.

3) Creative focus-As you can probably judge from my past posts, I have a LOT of projects in the works. I am trying to start a business of sorts, I am in the process of writing a book etc, etc, etc. So I can't overwhelm myself thinking of everything at once. The remedy: one thing at a time. So focusing one a chapter each week and trying to capture all my ideas and then moving to the next one.

So that's pretty much it. Oh yeah, and not forgetting you out there in cyber space. I know I have gotten away from you all but one of my goals would include becoming consistent again with this blog. I hope everyone is having a great new year and may 2014 treat all of you well in this thing called, "La Vie."