1st Day of FITmas

On the first day of FITmas, my best friend gave to me....



Amy and I are doing a Christmas-themed Yes.Fit race!
It comes with a super cool medal!!

Isn't it adorable!!!!!!!!

Anyway, you can follow us on Instagram HERE and HERE!

Race along with us using our hashtags!

#12daysofFITmas#facaingnaughtyornice
#facaingdecemberrace
#facainggettingourshitinorder #noexcuses #getoffyourassandmove
#fitspiration #virtualrace #yesfit #ijustwantthemedal

New Beginnings - Starting Today

Well, my blog has changed. I have given it a make-over.

I have a new title: Gulfside Gal Finding Fitspiration

Amy helped me come up with that (although I still think "Princess of Plump" has a nice ring to it!)

I have also reformatted my blog to [hopefully] fit my uploaded images nicely.



Please, follow my new Instagram feed:

GG_Finding.Fitspiration

Also, keep checking back as a Facebook page is in the works! :-)


Now, for a small tidbit about my "new" blog...

I will be using different hashtags to keep my Blog and Instagram feeds consistent.

My personal ones I will use are
#ggff
#ggfindingfitspo
#ggfindingfitspiration
#gulfsidegal

You may follow along and use them as well, and I may re-post some pictures! Also, if you happen to be on a journey like me and are living on the Gulf Side of Florida, use the email me function on the right ---> to shoot me an email, I may just want to buddy up and buddy-blog with you!

I will also use Hashtag Headers to announce certain features on certain days of the week. They will be random and I may not do each header each week, but be on the lookout for my new blog prompts:

-MPM- Meal Plan Monday: new recipes, meal plan tips/tricks I have used, and my personal food accomplishments

-TWI- Tuesday Weigh In: record weight, photos, measurements, etc...

-FIFF- Friday is for FITNESS: fitness tips, focus body parts for the weekend, new classes or workouts I try

-TLT- The Latest Thing: something new and exciting to share whenever!

-GGIA- Gulfside Gal In Action: action shots of outdoor fitness activities! (I'm hoping to use this one more as the weather "cools down")

I also want to say thank you to the few who read this. I know I'm not changing anyone's life, but it feels nice knowing someone reads this, even if I do get a bit whiney! :-P

That's all for now. I'm preparing to go to sleep soon so I can wake up and make tomorrow a good day!

1/3 the Way There, #TLT

Well, Amy and I are trying to hit 10k steps per day!

This is just a quick update to see how I am getting along. I had a few days with very little steps in them, so I know I'm down, but I'm just now calculating how far down I am.

Here's my first 10 days in visual form....

So, 10 days x 10,000 steps per day = 100,000 steps.

As you can see, I only have 72,336 in so far.

That means I'm 27,664 steps in the hole!! :(

If I want to hit 300,000 steps at the end of April, I'll need to tack on another 1,384 steps each day to hit my goal.

Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

• CRAP CRAP CRAP!!!
• Well, I'm taking my nephew to Disney on Tuesday, so I will rack up plenty of steps there!
• I am re-committing to my fitness this week, and I will log some workouts in lieu of steps. (To be fair, if 2,000 steps = 1 mile (-ish), and it takes me about 20:00 to walk 1 mile at an average [not too fast, not too slow] pace, then for every 10:00 of true fitness effort, I will log 1,000 steps.
• I will hit my Step Goal for April!!!
• I'm tired, and am going to bed
• The book I'm reading is okay, but not the author's best work
• I need to get Amy my work schedule for this week.
• ..... Oh crap, I don't know my work schedule this week! I hope I open tomorrow and am not getting up at 4:00am for nothing!! :-\
• I need to plan out my homework for the week so I'm not stuck doing it over the weekend.
• I need to see if any of my classes have released their finals study guides
• I'm still full from lunch from 2:00pm today!! I'll never eat this much again!! :-X
•  This is too many thoughts!! I'm going to bed!

Anyway, goodnight all!

Sunday 3.20.16

So, it's Sunday. I don't have a specific purpose for Sunday blogs, as in I do not have a hashtag for it, but I suppose I can tag this as #TheLatestThing!

Well, for some news, I quit my old gym. Planet Fitness, while judgement-free and serving my basic needs, just wasn't cutting it for me anymore. I hadn't gone in a few weeks, some of it has been scheduling issues, some of it has been my slacking off, some of it has been just the boring same-old thing that I just got tired of.

So, I went looking for a new gym. I didn't want to go back to Around the Clock Fitness, with it's free-weight section full of meat-heads and grunting idiots. I didn't want to go back to L.A. Fitness, because they are almost twice as much as any other gym I've been a member of. I know I can't do it on my own, not yet, as I still need the companionship of others around me to keep me motivated while I am there.

So, I went exploring. There is a "Wellness Center" at the hospital right by my house. It's the same hospital I volunteer at each Monday. I get a discount there, amenities like showers, steam room, changing stalls, a pool, heated hydrotherapy pool, plus there are many classes including group exercise, spin, and water aerobics classes!

I ended up joining. It's more than PF was per month, but not nearly as much as any of the previous gyms I've joined. The hours are alittle more limited, but they are still open enough for me to get there with my current work schedule. Mondays are too crowded, so I will use that day each week as a rest day.

I also plan on cardio 3x per week, and weights 3x per week. If I work out 5 days, then one of those days will be both cardio and weights.

I can also track my fitness routines online. The cool thing about the Wellness Center is they use FitLinxx in order to keep track of my routines, as well as overall health. It was set up with me by a personal fitness coach, and I can go to any coach in duty to have my range of motion reset, to adjust my base weight for each machine, as well as answer any questions I may have about my fitness routines or my target fitness goals.

As you can see, the 16th was an okay day for me. I came in, logged into my FitLinxx system, did 31 minutes of cardio on the treadmill, then did some weights, then finished it off with a total-body workout... laps in the pool!!
I ended up swimming 10 lengths (5 laps), for a total of 250 yards, which is just over 1/4th of a mile!

So, there you have it. The Latest Thing is that I joined a new gym; one that, for me, will be new and exciting for a while, and will allow me the fellowship I missed of group exercise classes, while also giving me new options like swimming and water aerobics!

Poem

So, I had a moment of hesitation tonight. I was in the hospital doing my Monday night volunteer thing, and I was curious about how much nurses make. My head nurse, I will call her H, told me she works four 12-hour days as her workweek, as do many of the other nurses. I looked up what a nurse in my area makes, on average. $60k. That's the average amount. Checking with CareerBuilder and the hospital's careers page directly, and they report close to the same numbers, about $27/28 per hour for Full-Time Nurses.

What if I'm in school for the wrong thing? What if I would make a great nurse, and have wasted so much time doing something else?

What if I hate my job?

What if I never get a job?

What if I never finished school?

Where is my summer tuition payment coming from?

....And so the spiral began. Into the deep dark hole of insecurity and uncertainty; of wanting to run away and leave everything behind; of feeling miserable about being my age and not having a definitive plan of action, or a clear course laid out.

But, instead of clamming up and losing my head, I decided to start writing... and I ended up with a poem.

Enjoy.

Starting Again

It's 112 days until July 4th. A day in which I had planned on having a "bikini body" ready to debut. 

Obviously, that's not going to happen. I will be in a one-piece for sure. But, I'm okay with that.

Today is going to be a new day. 

I just haven't had the motivation to refocus myself and buckle back down. I say to myself that I just don't have the time, that I have too much on my plate, but in truth it's that I don't want to make the time. The pity party I have settled into is easy, comfortable, effortless.

But it's not good for me. It wouldn't be good for anyone! 

So, I'm going to take this one day at a time. Focus on what I can control, let go of what I can't control.

I have a calendar that I use to map out my homework for each week. I'm going to fill in my work schedule and my homework schedule, and then each day I'm going to find time to spend on myself. Running, weights, drawing, painting, I will spend time really focusing on myself and my overall health.

I've created a few new hashtags and images that I'll start using. I want to blog more often, and hopefully create something of these ramblings.

So, here's the newest hashtag/image....

I will use this when I have something new to share!

So.... here it is! It's the outline to my first Watercolor painting! It's the iconic character of Jack Torrance played by a great actor..... Jack Nicholson!

(my outline - ready to move to watercolor paper)

(Reference shot)

I'll post more pics as the progress happens...!

Re-cap, February, Week 1

Well, I think it's about time I dust off this thing and use it ... especially since this is today's #DailyChallenge for Amy's and my #30DayChallenge and #FaCaingGettingOurShitInOrder


Well, let's look at the first week of February's Challenge!

If you can't read it, it goes as follows:
Weekly Challenge - Photo Challenge - Snap a pic in action this week!

Results:

Nada. I actually didn't take a single picture of myself this week. I also only got to the gym once (Monday) and despite my best efforts of planning my whole week out (meals, homework, gym, work, etc etc etc) it failed almost immediately because of my work schedule. So many people were out sick this week and it was tough and I stayed late a few days and ended up with some decent overtime because of it.

The daily challenges were:

Document your progress….time for new pictures and measurements

Be electronic free for 30 minutes

Drink half your weight in oz’s of water today

Set one simple goal you can accomplish today

Smile at a stranger

Get in 30 minutes of exercise today

Update your blog this week

Results:

-I did take new pictures and measurements, which is at least something!

-I was electronic free on Tuesday on my way home from work. I spent the 45-minute drive home through end-of-day traffic crying. It was a long, stressful day that day.

-I did not drink half my weight. Close, I drank about 100oz of 122oz that day, so I will check this as a win for the day.

-The one goal I set for myself was not to cry at work. I had just come off a stressful day and was going back for another long-ass day. Did I cry? Nope. I came close many times, but I held it off.

-Smiling at a stranger is something I do every day. I work in customer service!

-30 minutes of exercise? Hah! Although I hit my 10,000 step goal today, it was because we spent the day running errands and generally running around, not because I made it to the gym or was running in any real fashion,

-I am currently updating my blog! YaY!

So, overall, I "technically" hit most of my daily challenges, but I still feel like I failed, because I did not log once, nor did I follow my meal plan after like.... Tuesday... and I got to the gym once. ONCE.

So, tomorrow begins a new week, and I have yet to plan out my week. I haven't made a single list, chart, or whatever. Not even for homework. Which is not a good thing. My life may be hectic, but homework is one thing I cannot just throw to the wind and play by ear.

So... what is wrong with me?! Maybe I'm wearing too many hats. I probably am...

--Full time employee

--Full time student

--Wife

--Volunteer

--Myself

I pretty much have it in that order, too. I can't avoid work, and school is more important but also more flexible; I still have to maintain my house and my husband, I volunteer once a week at the hospital, and after all of that it leaves very little time for anything I may want to do, including health/fitness and even my hobbies. Hell, I have to get up early just to finish laundry sometimes! >.<

Lucky for me, I'm not working tomorrow. My only true plan is to babysit my mother who is getting her permanent bottom denture put in. She'll need a ride to and from the dentist office, and I am bringing her to my house to rest and sleep off the anesthesia. I'll be able to get alot done, too. John will be working, the house will be quiet, and I'll have the whole day to myself.

So, the plan is...

Tonight: get my week planned for the challenge!

For tomorrow (Monday):

--Build my homework schedule for the week

--Take the food logging one day at a time! One meal at a time if I have to!

--Figure out 3 days to make it to the gym

--Get ahead with homework reading for the week

--Take 2 hours for myself on my other day off (Sunday) to do something I want to do (which in this case is try out my new watercolor paints!)