Month: December 2019

The January First Song & Dance

Leave a comment

Holy moley.

Life really knows how to kick you when you’re down, doesn’t it? I think this has been the most difficult, most confusing, most painful month of my entire life. But you know what?

December is almost over, thank God.

I’ve never wanted to be one of those people that was like “Start the new year fresh!” I don’t know why though, because deep down I’ve always been this person.

  1. I love fresh starts.
  2. I love round numbers.
  3. I try to go into every day with a clean slate, every week with a new focus, and every month with a new goal.

So why do I hate on the “new year – new me” trend every year? Am I so hipster that I hate it just because it’s popular? Possibly.

I think it also makes me sad, and I don’t like being sad. People are so motivated for JANUARY FIRST and ready to start on JANUARY FIRST and excited for JANUARY FIRST and then the other 364 days of the new year are neglected. If we truly want to have a “new year – new me” mindset, then we should all be restarting our 365 day year every single morning.

If we all treated every day like it was JANUARY FIRST I guarantee we would see:

    • More kindness and generosity
    • Gyms packed with motivated people reaching their goals
    • Coffee shops filled with avid readers
    • People cooking themselves and their families healthier meals
    • More bad habits kicked
    • Less money unwisely spent
    • Overall more happiness all around

…and all the other popular new year’s resolutions that people keep for JANUARY FIRST and then forget about because it too quickly becomes January second.

So, I know I have winter goals that I’m chipping away at (badly, might I add; I told you it’s been a horrible month), but I do have one New Year’s goal:

I do not want to make any New Year’s goals.

I want to have goals for every season, every month, every week, and every day, and I don’t want them to be limited by waiting for the big sparkly ball to drop at midnight. I think the world would be a better place if every day were New Year’s day.

If anyone reading this has had as shitty of a month as I have, I’m so sorry. Whatever you’re going through: I’m sorry and that sucks. Try to remember that every storm runs out of rain. (Isn’t that a country song? I think that’s a country song.)

And that’s my two cents. See you next year!

img_20191224_121235

I gave myself bangs, guys. That’s how emotionally unstable December 2019 has made me. And yes, I do regret them. Thank you for asking. *sigh*

A Very Merry Leg Day

Leave a comment

Good morning, interwebs.

This isn’t a cutesy blog like a couple days ago, this blog will mostly be my own brainstorming; you’ve been warned.

It’s currently 6:43am, I’m barely conscious, but today I’m going to do a lower body day at the gym. I’ll be taking off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (mostly because I have so many places to be… I love the gym on holidays because no one is there), so I’m going to make this workout a killer.

The title says “leg day” but that was for brevity and word cadence, this will actually be my complete lower body workout for the day.

Stretch

I’ve heard controversial things about the benefits of static stretching lately, but my hamstrings are extremely tight and a nice toe-touch feels good, sue me.

5 minute Aerobic Warm-Up

I walk the track at my gym for 5 minutes usually for my warm-up because it’s easy and machines make my legs feel like they’re walking themselves afterwards and I really don’t need that confusion first thing in the morning.

3 x 10 Banded Side Leg Raise / Banded Leg Kick-Backs Superset

These exercises really warm up the glutes and stretch out the hammies. I typically start with a smaller set of both of these un-banded to correct any issues with my form and address any pains, then I go straight into this superset. I do 10 leg raises and immediately to 10 kick-backs on the same leg before switching sides.

3 x 10 Weighted Back Extensions

I prefer to use the free-weight machine not the one with the plates, but sometimes a girl is lazy. Today I will put this at the beginning of my workout to make sure I have the strength and will-power to use the free-weight one. With this exercise I always have to remind myself not to over-extend at the top; you should be dipping forward as far as you can but then pulling up only until your spine is straight and your torso and shoulders are aligned with your hips.

3 x 10 Kettlebell RDLs / Standing Side Crunches

RDLs or Romanian Deadlifts are probably my favorite lower body exercise at the moment. “But Emily, why not do regular deadlifts, they’re a more composite exercise, you preached about composite exercises…” True, however I have a very weak lower back and very strong quads. Deadlifts are a quad dominant movement that incorporates the entire body; whereas RDLs are more localized in targeting the glutes and lower back while still being a similar move. Ya girl wants to have a strong lower back without her thick thighs getting too much thicker, alright.

And as if that wasn’t a workout enough, while I’m resting my back and booty I immediately do 10 standing side crunches on each side with the same kettlebell. These are the adult version of “I’m a little teapot.”

3 x 10 Leg Press Machine

Again with the controversy, I have no idea if stance matter when it comes to the leg press machine, but I’ve always heard that it does. I use a wide, high, pointed-toe stance. From what I’ve read and felt, this stance helps target the hamstrings, glutes, and inner thighs, and let’s the quads chill a little bit.

3 x 10 Hip Abductor Machine

The awkward one.

3 x 10 Hip Adductor Machine

The one that makes you feel like you’re at the gynecologist.

5 minute Cool-Down

Depending on how I feel when I get done I either stretch more or walk the track or hop on a bike with no resistance. Today (and usually, tbh) I walked the track.

Ta-Da! That was my lower body day. Time wise, I aim to be at the gym from 7-8am every day, so for me this took about an hour from the time I put my jacket in a locker to the time I walk out the door. It may take longer if these are new moves to you or if you take it a little easier than I do when I’m jacked up on pre-workout.

I’m sure there are better workouts out there, but I know there are much worse (and I’ve probably done them). If you try this routine or take inspiration from it to create your own, I’d love to know about it! The contact form goes straight to my email so drop a line!

Alrighty, that’s all. And if I get too occupied or lazy to blog for the next couple days:

Merry Christmas, internet!

img_20191223_094419

Yes, my earrings do jingle. Thank you for asking.

Day 28/90: How to Re-Set

Leave a comment

Hey, hi, hello, internet.

Being an adult is weird… One moment you’re achieving your goals, blogging every day, hitting the gym, then the next moment your grandmother dies…

My grandmother passed away last Friday so I’ve been on a life-hiatus for the last week. When we lived in Wisconsin, we would drive to Kentucky to visit my Mamaw and Papaw every Thanksgiving. I fully credit Mamaw with my love of nature. Me being the true born city girl that I am, I never really did anything outside… until Thanksgiving. Mamaw would take me four-wheeling into the mountains; we walked waded in the creek for miles collecting rocks (I still collect rocks and minerals btw); we would play in the barn with the newest animals she had or walking across the plank between the two lofts; and she would sing while I played my violin on the porch (very badly as a 5th grader, but she didn’t care). She was 84 but truly acted like she was 14, in the best way. I’ll never look at Kentucky mountain or valley again without seeing her there.

Pardon the crass transition

Without surprise, I’ve fallen off the wagon as far as fitness and health goes for the past week, so I thought this would be a good time to talk about how I re-set and kick my butt back into gear.

 

How to Re-Set Your Goals

 

#1   Re-evaluate your goals

People “mess up” on their goals for a multitude of different reasons, most of them not nearly as dramatic as death, but regardless of the reason you need to first determine if it is a you-problem or a goal-problem.

A lot of the time it’s a you-problem (that sounds harsh but stay with me) where you’ve either lost motivation, or been a little too lax on yourself, or maybe it’s the holiday’s and you let yourself indulge, or maybe heavy, adult things smacked you in the face like they did me. All of those scenarios can be summed up by saying:

life happens. And that’s okay!

However, sometimes it’s a goal-problem. Maybe you got injured because your workouts were too intense, or maybe you’re exhausted from too few calories, or maybe you’re truly burnt out from being TOO strict on yourself. You have to be honest with yourself and adjust if your goals are too much to handle all at once.

#2   Let yourself change your mind!

If you need to adjust your goals, allow yourself to do so. This was going to be lumped in with the “re-evaluate” part, but I thought it was worth it’s own bullet point!

People (me, I’m people) get so stuck in their ways sometimes and don’t allow themselves to change their mind. Don’t set yourself up for failure! Adjust your goals so that they are still challenging but attainable.

#3   Be very strict for the first few days, but don’t overcompensate.

Again with the setting yourself up for failure; don’t overcompensate! Do what you would normally do to chug along towards your goals.

Think about it this way, if you push yourself too hard during your re-set you’re more likely to fail again, and then you’ll have to re-set again, and if you overcompensate again then you’ll be more likely to fail again, and then you’ll have to re-set again… You see what I mean? So start fresh. Move on. You can’t change anything you’ve already done, so do better this time around.

#4   Stay positive.

This is probably the most important part of a re-set for any goals. Your mindset can make all the difference when it comes to starting over.

Keep in mind:

  • You’ll bounce back quicker than before
  • You’ve already done this part successfully once, you can do it again
  • Take it day by day.
  • Actually, take it decision by decision.
    • If someone offers you a Christmas cookie and you only get those cookies at Christmas and you really want that cookie… Eat the cookie. But then the very next decision make sure it’s a good decision. That will set you back on track.

 

No matter what your goals may be or why you need a goal re-set right now, I hope this blog hits the right notes for you.

Does anyone have any other tips and tricks? Motivation? I’ll take it all: Questions, suggestions, criticism, concerns, send them my way please and thank you. I will be starting my re-set tomorrow. The day before Christmas Eve. Because I am a masochistic idiot.

Wish me luck.

Okkkkaaayyyyy bye!

Mamaw

Winter Goals

1 Comment

Good morning, happy winter!

I’ve never been good at new year’s resolutions, mainly because by July of whatever year I’ve made the goals I’ve already forgotten what they were. So I decided a while back that I was going to do seasonal goals. So here we go!

Winter Goals

Lose 15lbs and 7% body fat

No explanation required, we’re still doing a fitness thing here even if I have fallen behind. 175lbs & 29% are the numbers I’m aiming for.

 

Write the first draft of my novel

It’s been in the works for a very very long time and I think I have everything I need to write a complete draft, everything except the will power that is.

 

Stop biting my nails

Surely 3 months is long enough to kick that habit, right?

 

Read at least three books

I don’t do this enough.

 

Do at least two charcoal drawings

I have an art degree, but you’d never know by the amount of art I make.

 

I think seasonal goals will be great not only for mindset but also for practicality! These are all things that I want to do, of course, but I tailored these goals to be winter specific. I also want to walk our husky more often and kayak and hike, but if I decide on those goals in January when it’s 16 degrees and we’re buried in Kentucky ice, how will I get excited about those goals again in May?

I need to do things immediately or I lose interest.

The fact that I won’t be writing on my novel as soon as I close this blog will undoubtedly make me think twice about that goal when I do sit down to write. But no matter, they’re written in the blog and so they shall be.

Alrighty, that’s all!

If you have any goals that you don’t want to put off until the ball drops, tell me about them! Let’s make seasonal goals a thing. Can we do that? Is that legal?

img_20190630_142729

I really do.

Welcome to my diary

It’s amazing how quickly you can fall into a bad habit. It’s day 19 of my daily blogging and I’ve already caught myself only writing blogs that give advice or have a clear defined point to them.

But the thing is,

this is my personal website and essentially my daily journal. I’m not selling anything, I’m not marketing myself as some sort of guru, I’m just out here living my life. My intention for this blog is to document my life so years from now I can go back and read about… myself… oh wow, how narcissistic, Emily.

That’s why I initially started by documenting “something I couldn’t stop thinking about from yesterday” on my first couple blogs. That didn’t really work because all of my days run together as one long existence. But nonetheless, I would still like to daily blog.

That all being said, sometimes my blogs will be short and sweet and uninteresting.

Future readers:

I wanted to inform all of you that when you come across a post like this it’s most likely because I’m half asleep sitting on my recliner at 6am writing my stream of (semi)conscience thoughts.

Future Emily:

You’re welcome girl, this is for you. Hang in there.

 

Hey future me, have you figured out what this contraption is yet?