I Live My Love

Some much needed advice.

Some much needed advice/inspiration for today, when I’m feeling overwhelmed and utterly burried in my personal and professional life.

via molly-alone

I’ve been so meh recently. Nothing’s wrong - but I’m feeling a little lost and unmotivated and feeling without a purpose or direction. I ran a marathon (yay!) in January, but since I’ve just been feeling lazy and complacent.

It’s not just my workouts that have suffered. It’s everything. My house is messier than I’d like it to be, I’m working (but not pushing myself terribly hard) at the office, and while I’m getting by - I’m not really doing much.

I’m not unhappy. It’s just a general meh feeling. Things are good - I just need to put more effort into life (and into myself).

So, it’s time to institute a Say It, Do It policy around here. I’m pretty good at saying it, but severly lacking on follow through.

This week, I will:

• Work Out: 3x runs, 2x classes (at least one being a yoga class), and 2x strength sessions
• At Work: Get to work before 9am. Show up earlier. Stay later a few days this week. Stop putting off some lingering items.
• Eating: Do a 3 day juice cleanse. Not in the hopes of dropping lots of lbs, but to remember the joy of eating. If I can exercise enough willpower to get through a juice cleanse, I can exercise enough restraint to eat one Reese’s peanut butter egg (unlike the three I ate this weekend. One after another.) 

I think I’m just coming off of post-marathon/post-holiday bliss and setting into complacency. I have no problem with lazy days (they’re my favorite!) - but I want to make sure I’m actively living life and not letting it pass me by. By putting more effort into my workouts, into my time at the office, and with what I put in my mouth, I think it’ll set the tone for other things in my life.

(Source: fortheloveof-pink, via aliotakesonchicago)

This week’s mani pedi is half winter/half summer, half serious/half just for fun. I’m like a walking contradiction.

Nails: OPI Lincoln Park After Dark. Toes: OPI Gone Gonzo (from the Muppets collection).

This weekend was for:

• Sleeping 11 hours on Friday night (and not setting an alarm to wake us up on Saturday morning!)
• Picking out the most perfect Christmas tree (from a cut-your-own tree farm!)
• Decorating said tree, getting the house (and dogs!) in the Christmas spirit
• Running 22 miles in the mist/drizzle/pouring rain (it wasn’t pretty, but I got all 22 miles in!)
• Getting most of my Christmas shopping done (except for a few gift cards and online things - I’m finished!)
• Realizing (since I’m trying to track what I eat) that I need to increase my protein (unless it’s normal that 80% of my diet comes from carbs?) - and then deciding to fill my pint glass with chocolate milk instead of beer while watching football (and watching the Jets win!) 

What? You don’t send texts from your dogs to family members while watching football on TV?

(Side note - Tinky was a dog we had while I was in college. My dad adopted him from an elderly woman who could no longer take care of him. Either my dad didn’t listen, or the woman didn’t clearly explain herself, because my dad thought Tinky was some sort of young/puppy Husky mix and would get bigger as he grew up. In reality, Tinky was a twelve year old American Eskimo [weighing 30 lbs max], and was an Alpha male to the extreme. He had dreadlocks (hence the phrase, “Stinky like Tinky”), only had one eye (he damaged the other one fighting with another dog), and was the most hilarious dog we’ve ever had (he’d sleep on his back with his legs straight in the air, making me think he was dead). I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in my family who actually liked Tinky (he was too little for my dad and brother, too grumpy for my mom, and not cuddly enough for my sister). I’ve had friends use Tinky as a napkin (it’s always funny to see Cheeto stains on your dog’s back the morning after a late night at the bar) or a blanket (we had a small leather couch in our kitchen, not made for sleeping, but I’ve had friends spoon Tinky to keep warm at night). Tinky was hilarious - RIP Tinky. May the phrase “Stinky like Tinky” live on!

The husband is working super late tonight (I probably won’t see him until after midnight), so I’m on my own for the evening and I couldn’t be any more excited. Tonight is (and is going to be) awesome, because:

• I’m caught up on laundry (four loads - done!)
• My local running store put on a group run, called Friday Night Lights (which was kind of false advertising - since it did not include Tim Riggins) where I got to get my first run in this week and catch up with a friend I haven’t seen in forever
• On the run my legs felt great (I was a bit nervous about a outer knee/lower IT band issue)
• After the run, the store had cookies and $10 gift cards for us, and I got an awesome Brooks pint glass which says “Run to Live Lager” (hah!)
• I’m eating Chinese food - my new Friday night tradition (which the husband is getting so tired of, but lo mein is dong an awesome job of fueling my Saturday long runs)
• I get to watch my DVR’d shows (like Parenthood and Project Runway All Stars) - without the husband’s judgmental side eye
• I’m drinking wine - yum
• I found an appropriate holiday party dress which arrived in the mail today. After quite a few misses - I’m glad I found one (and totally under budget!)
• I’m finishing up my online shopping for the husband for shopping (two major gifts purchased - woo hoo!)
• My DIY mani actually looks okay (as long as I keep my hands moving no one will notice it’s a little less than perfect)

Tonight was a great start to my weekend. Let’s hope it’s all uphill from here!

Completely relevant right now. 

I am responsible for how I feel, for how I react, for my level of happiness.

I am able to change, adapt, and not to wallow.

I am responsible for the quality of love and joy I have in my life.

This (long) weekend by the numbers:

• 3: number of miles jogged during The Color Run with the mom, the sister, and the husband. (This would be my only workout of the weekend - due to a cold and my laziness.)
• 1: number of years the husband and I have been married. We celebrated on Sunday!
• 3: number of recipes from the Top Chef Cookbook we made together (to celebrate said anniversary)
• 2: number of trips to Sonic
• 0: number of trips which involved tots (we got slushees - since I was feeling dehydrated and my throat was killing me.)
• 6: number of Tylenol PM capsules taken (on three different nights), trying to get some decent sleep to get rid of this cold. (On a side note - I seriously think my immune system has called it quits. I’ve been sick so much recently!)
• 16: number of hours I slept on Saturday (4 hours of naps and 12 hours at night.)
• 7: loads of laundry done (it was a tag-team effort between the husband and I, since there is a giant centipede in the basement, and until it’s dead, I refuse to go down there myself.)
• 54: number of dollars spent at Target. (I’m getting so good at this whole ‘buy only necessities and stop buying junk” thing!)
• 4: number of hugs I got from the in-laws when we took them out to dinner (seeing how I usually avoid hanging out with them, this was actually not unpleasant.)
• 1: number of showers I took from Friday morning through Monday night (this explains why I still have tinges of blue on my neck from The Color Run - and why I’m wearing a scarf today.)
• 8: number of episodes of Storage Wars watched - which reminded me of all the things I need to sell on eBay.
• 0: number of work-related emails I responded to (although I did check my blackberry periodically over the long weekend, I didn’t respond to a single one, which is a total victory! )

Scenes from this weekend:

Quality time was spent with the family (and The Nana!), field trips were taken with the dogs (and even in a rental car, the Scottie wants to sit in the front seat), beers were drank, and naps were had (although - after 10 days of vacation, I’m more tired than ever!)