Friday Faves

Hey Slayers, Simone here. Happy Friday the 13th!

I don't know about you, but as much as I love snow, I'm still eagerly waiting for the equinox so our daylight can start lasting a little longer again. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few things that have been brightening my dark winter days lately!

1. Loki makes everything better.

You know that Daft Punk song? So does Tom Hiddleston:

I think I like his version better. (Full .gif here. You're welcome.)

2. Community.

I finally started watching this show about a study group at community college, and I am enjoying it thoroughly -- especially the fantastic friendship dynamics between Troy & Abed. If you haven't watched the show before, I highly recommend it! It's on Hulu, and I'm sure you can find it elsewhere. I'm only on season 2 so far, but there is tons of nerd humor and plenty of heartwarming tales of friendship -- plus the best Zombie Halloween party you've seen and a rather epic school-wide paintball fight to the death. I want to be best friends with them, for obvious reasons:

(link)

3. An Unlikely Friendship.

As you likely saw on the internet last week, Norwegian photographer Torgier Berge was walking with his dog Tinni when they came upon a red fox. Turns out that the German Shepherd and red fox rather enjoyed each others' company!

4. The recent Nerd Fitness post on body image.

I'm sure many of you are NF readers already (that's how I found Anne here at Project Reroll!), but I have to say that this post came at a great time. I've been in hibernation mode lately, not wanting to work out, not wanting to eat right, and subsequently not feeling all that great. It's always a great reminder that appearance is a consequence of fitness and of health. We spend so long worrying about who we see in the mirror instead of who we are and what we do in our lives.

As they say in the article, "Are you healthy? Does your body allow you to do the things you want to do in life? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then your body is ideal."

5. These awesome shirts from Activate Apparel.

Need I say more?

In the meantime . . .

Though I may not be back in the full swing of workout schedules, cooking healthy meals, and navigating the holiday season stress-free, I have been attempting to keep a brief, bullet-point list of healthy choices I make throughout the week. If I make an effort to think positively, I write that down. If I take the stairs, I write it down. If I say no to the holiday pie that my coworker brought in . . . you get the picture. It's my own mini version of a gratitude journal. I'm hoping it will help me keep momentum going even while things are hectic!

And finally, I wanted to share one last exciting bit of news in the midst of my anxiety, stress, and equinox countdown:

I got my first rope ascent!

You guys, I have never climbed a rope in my entire life. Even in elementary school, on the knotted rope, I just swung gently at the bottom and wondered why I was the only one in class apparently not evolved from monkeys. (Maybe I had sloth ancestry? Get on that, geneticists.) 

Well, last week Friday, I went to my first crossfit workout at an actual gym, and part of the workout included rope ascents. With some coaching on the proper way to use your feet . . . I GOT ONE! I may not be graceful as I fumble around with my feet. I am far from fast as I haul myself up. I can probably only give it one or two attempts before I run out of stamina, and I'm certainly not ready to try a hands-only climb. 

BUT.

I GOT UP THERE.

Action shot! That's me in the teal -- OFF THE GROUND, YOU GUYS!

Amy Clover from Strong Inside Out shared this quote on Pinterest recently, and I thought it was rather fitting:

We all have our ups and downs, but darker winters and stressful holidays can compound the normal issues we deal with on a day-to-day basis. Remember not to go it alone: whether you're starting to change your eating habits, trying a new way to stay active, quitting smoking, learning something new -- have a support group, whether in person or here in online communities. Help each other. We're all at different places on our "rope ascent." It's so important to have supporters as you work to accomplish new things -- and at the very least, it will make your climb more fun. :)

What goals are you working towards today?

What are some of your "favorites" that are brightening your winter days?

--Simone

Projects & Pumpkins

Hey Slayers! Simone here, checking in with some fall updates!

I don't know about you, but I'm having a crazily busy fall so far. This is the first autumn in 18+ years that I haven't been going back to school full-time, and I naively thought I'd have more free time now. Ha!

There have been some fun new developments, though. First announcement: I'm stably employed! Hooray! My temporary position will officially become permanent on Monday. This is my first non-retail/non-temporary job ever, and I'm pretty psyched. Just in time for my student loan bills! Yay, adulthood!

Now that I officially have an office desk, I think it might be time to try making a terrarium to decorate!

My current desk decor could use a little help, don't you think?

Also, I gotta say, the 5k last weekend was a blast. My coworkers and I achieved our goal of not stopping to walk for the entire 3.1 mile course. I have never done that before! We had lovely weather and a really nice time. They might even be able to talk me into doing it next year... We'll see!

I've also been working on some other personal goals! My friends and I have added Monday as a third garage CrossFit day. It was originally intended for just our roommates, but quickly grew to include several Tuesday/Thursday regulars as well. I'm getting really close to strict and kipping pull-ups, and starting to tap into a more "can-do" mental state as well instead of telling everyone "I can't." It certainly makes for a more fun and rewarding workout experience. :)

I'm also going to do my first workout in a real CrossFit gym with my mom! I'm not sure if I can afford a membership yet, but I know having access to skilled coaches would probably double my progress. I'm also interested in being a coach someday, but I have a ways to go yet! My mom is a little apprehensive about the "hardcore" appearance of CrossFit, as I'm sure many people are (I was too!); I'm hoping to show her that it can be for everyone, and that at the right gym it's just a supportive community with a fun, dynamic, and challenging workout to get through together. Either way, we'll both be giving each other moral support! :)

In my copious remaining free time, I'm trying to teach myself Photoshop/Illustrator and basic web design. I have no background with this and never got the chance to take classes in college, but my own personal blog just turned 5 last week, and I'd like to refresh it a bit! I'm also working on my Lara costume little by little. Here's the first glimpse at my thigh holster -- it's still in progress, but hopefully I'll have more pictures after the weekend!

Last Friday night = National Treasure and crafting. No regrets!

Meal planning is still a struggle as always; I did well earlier this week and then had a (delicious) grilled cheese and two cupcakes for my coworker's birthday yesterday. But life goes on -- this weekend I will be sure to make meal planning a priority again. I'm also putting together an exciting nutrition challenge for my fellow garage crossfitters that I'm pretty excited about!

Speaking of meal planning and preparation, do these paleo pumpkin chocolate chip muffins from PaleOMG look great or what?! I sense baking in my weekend!

--Simone

Motivational Thinking: I Have Many Skills

There are things I've started to tell myself to stay on track when things get hard or food gets tempting. In the past, being a stickler about having to do the same thing every day has caused me to lose large amounts of weight in the beginning, but resulted in a failure later on when I'm not able to continue measuring up to my own incredibly high standards. After all, no two days are the same, so if you limit yourself to certain behaviors performed in an exact order every day, there's only so long you can carry on before you start to feel trapped by the process. The key difference here is that I've been educating myself on how to be more active and how to supplement the Nutrisystem program so that if I do have to adjust, I have more options for strategies and solutions at my finger tips. This time around, I'm allowing myself to be more flexible and adopting a "slow and steady wins the race" mentality so that I can focus on lasting life-style changes rather than yo-yoing down so fast that I fail to maintain the weightloss and shoot up higher than I was in the first place. It's the difference between Jedi and Sith training.

So without further ado, here are some of my go-to motivational mantras:

• You can sleep in, but then you have to go to the gym after work and work twice as hard.
• You never regret going to the gym, but you do regret not going.
• If you want to eat off of your specific diet plan, then PLAN how you're going to do it so that you're not undoing the hard work you've done. On these "indulgence" days, you MUST go to the gym. 
• If you're dreading your typical boring workout, you don't have to do it. BUT! You do have to go to the gym and take a class.
• If you have a setback, let it go and move forward. You're not going to undo a mistake by harping on the past. The only thing that will undo a setback is what you DO in the present and plan to do in the future. 
• What do we say to the god of giving up?

Buy this print on Society Six

Those are just a few of the sentiments I've been using to push myself through rough spots. If you have more that you use to keep your motivation up, please feel free to post them in the comments!