Friday's Letters

It's been a while since I've posted letters, so today seems like a great Friday to do it!

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Dear Friday, This day is particularly special because it's the second to last day of classes. I don't know where this school year went, but it's almost gone and another summer is upon me. Dear summer, I'm looking forward to making lists and getting lots of stuff accomplished. Last summer was the summer of the wedding and honeymoon, and this summer is going to be more about being productive and getting our life in order. Dear SkinnyTaste, your recipes never let me down. I tried your triple berry chia pudding, and I really liked it! I need to add some stevia next time, but for now I can already tell I'll be making it frequently. 

Dear Target, you're dangerous. I've visited twice this week and have found goodies both times! Your Sam & Libby collection is pretty great. I'm pleased with myself that I only bought one pair of shoes... Dear Chobani, how did I wait so long to try the caramel and pineapple bite? It tastes amazing, and it's the perfect size. Dear Throwback Thursday on Instagram, I have participated the last two weeks and it has been fun! I love looking back and old pictures and realizing that I haven't changed at all. I mean, why wouldn't I have thrown a fishing pole up into the air?

Dear Tim, I'm looking forward to a weekend off with you. That means breakfast at First Watch, couch time, and pottery night on Saturday! I know you're not a potter, but I think you'll enjoy it. I know I for one can't wait! Dear Readers, thanks for stopping by! I've finally transitioned myself into using feedly and have been trying to keep more regular on blogging interaction. I look forward to catching up with you all when summer comes!

Have a wonderful weekend! What are you most looking forward to in the next few days?

Making it all fit

Yesterday I went to take a picture of the salad that I made for dinner to share on Instagram, because I loved all of the colors. I was writing my caption, and it got me thinking about scheduling.

So often I find that there isn't enough time for everything, so I pick and choose what I want to do in the time period allotted. After my funky day on Monday and not working out, I knew that I was going to get in a bike ride yesterday, no matter what time I got home.

I got home at 6:30.

It was late to pack up my bike and take it to the trail, but I knew I had enough daylight hours to do it with plenty of time, so I hurried and did it.

I got in my 12 miles in a little less than 45 minutes, packed up, and headed home to unload. I wanted to make dinner last night too, because I've been bad about it lately and have felt like a slacker in the kitchen. After taking my bike off the rack, I headed to the grocery store to pick up salad ingredients. Obviously it's not a cooked meal, but it's better than grabbing takeout for the umpteenth time this month. 

And then I made the salads and sat down to eat at around 8:20. It was a later night, but I was able to be flexible with the schedule that I had to fit in everything that I wanted.

This doesn't happen all the time. In fact, often when I have more time I get less done, because I have more time to waste. I take my time getting ready or sit for just a few minutes longer. But when I'm rushed for time and am committed to doing everything, I can usually somehow make it work.

That being said, I don't belong to a gym right now, and I have a bit of a fear of running or working out in the dark in the morning. My neighborhood has a gym that's pretty nice I use in the afternoons, but it even makes me a little nervous to use that in the morning because it's unstaffed. They also don't turn on the pool lights early enough for me to swim before it's light out, and I have to leave for work by 7:00. That's just why I won't workout in the mornings right now. Usually I'm able to get home earlier than 6:30 too. 

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Oftentimes when I'm sitting around wasting time or finding myself being unproductive, I think about this quote and make myself feel better about my choice of doing nothing at the time. But the truth of the matter is, nights like last night really do remind me that a lot of my "wasted time" isn't even really even time I enjoy. It's just plain wasted time. And it makes me want to waste less time and use more of my time productively. 

Is this true for you? Do you find you sometimes waste more time when you have more time to waste? How do you make sure you're as productive with your time as possible?

10 (+1) things that make me happy

I've seen many people joining in with the blog everyday in May writing prompts that Jenni has created, and today I decided I wanted to join in for the 10 things that make me happy. I had a bad day yesterday for no reason at all, and when I went to bed sad about it, I realized that it really wasn't a bad day at all. It just wasn't a good day, and I've been having a lot of those lately. Today, to start things off on the right foot, I wanted to make a list of some things that make me happy to remind myself of ways to have more of the good days and less of the not as good ones...

1. working out. No matter what, working out always makes me happy when I'm done. I think one of the reasons that I didn't have a good day yesterday is because I didn't workout...

2. being in the middle of a good book. Reading the kind of book that you want to finish to know what happens but also don't want to finish because they you're not sure you're going to find a book quite that good...

3. waking up and knowing that I get to have coffee. Sometimes at night I just want to go to sleep so that when I wake up I can have coffee. There's something about my first morning coffee that makes me so happy.

4. my monthly popsugar must have box. I don't do any other subscription boxes besides this one, but every month it's very random about what I receive. Because I'm saving money and not doing much shopping right now, this  it like a little gift to open each time it appears on my doorstep.

5. finding money somewhere I didn't know I had it. Finding a five dollar bill or a twenty dollar bill that you didn't remember putting in a pocket or a purse or a drawer is so unexpected, and it's almost like you can spend it on anything you want to without thinking about it. That did happen to me yesterday, and it was a treat.

6. someone letting me over in traffic. Maybe it's silly, but if I'm trying to turn or get over and someone lets me, it just eases any traffic tension that I have. Also, I guess, letting someone over in traffic. It makes me smile a little longer because of the thought that maybe I eased some morning or afternoon stress for them.

7. spending time with friends. This is I'm sure on everyone's happy list, but no matter what we do, spending time with friends makes me happy. It's nice to have friends to catch up with and have fun with and talk to about serious things.

8. having an unexpectedly fun time. This one is probably the hardest to explain, but do you know how sometimes you just have more fun at something than you normally do? This happened to me on Saturday night. We went out to dinner and drinks afterwards with two friends, and it was just more fun than your average dinner and drinks; I don't know why. You can't replicate it, but when it happens it just makes you happy. 

9. counting down the days until vacation and then going on said vacation. This probably makes me happy because I'm in the process of doing it now. Counting down the days makes each day a little brighter, and actually heading off on vacation feels like the world around you stops for long enough for you to enjoy yourself before returning to the normal grind.

10. time on the couch with my husband. Most of the time with Tim makes me happy, but hanging out on the couch watching tv or catching up about our days each night might be my favorite part of my day each day. It's just nice.

+1. new underwear. It's weird, I know. I just can't help it. I love new underwear more than I love any other new piece of clothing. I have said many times before that if I had enough money, I would have a new pair of underwear for each day. I can't explain it, and I won't even try.

Would any of these make your list of things that make you happy? What would you include on your list?

I hope you have a great day. Making this list has helped make mine better than yesterday!

Weekly Workouts Roundup 5/6-5/12

This weekend was very enjoyable. We went out to dinner on Saturday night with friends, and then we went to a really cool renovated hotel afterwards. I relaxed most of the day yesterday, and I never got around to blogging about my workouts. I did want to share about them though, because I did have a pretty successful week. I'm gaining so much enjoyment from cross training  which is obviously going to be beneficial when I do start running again (hopefully soon).
Here are those workouts:
Monday: I was sick and left from work and never felt better to work out that afternoon.
Tuesday: I biked for 40 minutes, though I accidentally stopped my Garmin at a light and forgot to start it again. I have no idea how far I biked. I'm guessing it was somewhere around 10 miles. 
Wednesday: Though I probably should have gone to the pool, I wanted to ride again after not having known how far I biked the day before. I headed over to the trail near my house and rode 16 miles.

Thursday: I did 50 minutes of upper body weights and cardio wamup and cool down.

Friday: I took another rest day.

Saturday: I met up with Tori and we rode 39 miles on the Suncoast Trail. It's a beautiful trail, and we did a 10 mile out and back twice because it looked like it was going to rain. There was definitely a lot of cycling this week!

Sunday: On Sunday I did arm weights again and swam 1250 yards. I alternated kicking and swimming, mostly because I needed to get off the couch and shake the lazy day I was having. 

It was a great week of workouts last week, and it was a great weekend. I'm looking forward to even improving upon them this week. But I have to admit, I really am missing running a lot. I can't wait to be back!

What was your best workout last week? What is your goal for this week?

Link up workouts with me and Kat!

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What's Beautiful?

I am so excited to share with you today about the Under Armour "What's Beautiful" campaign and contest. I've been selected through FitFluential to share with you about it, and I'm being sent gear from Under Armour to sport while participating, but it is something that I would truly be interested in without any incentive.

The competition is to "redefine the female athlete" as Under Armour puts it. When you sign up you put in a goal that YOU WILL complete by working towards it for the duration of the competition. Along the way, you pin, tweet, vlog, and photograph your journey to your goal. Everything is uploaded to a Pinterest style board so you can see how others are progressing along the way. It looks like this:

The photos and videos are in response to challenges that Under Armour posts along the way. Right now, the challenges include uploading a video stating a goal, keeping track of mileage and sharing it, making a list of smaller goals you'll need to reach to meet your bigger declared goal, and others. 

I chose my BIG GOAL to be to complete a triathlon, and right now, though injured, I'm working towards it in other ways. Among those, as I mentioned before, is biking and swimming.

And another purpose of the campaign is to help us, as female athletes, remember what it means to be beautiful. Sometimes people think of themselves as being beautiful only when dressed up with hair done and a full face of makeup on, but that isn't what beauty is really about. Being beautiful entails so much more, and so much of what we participate in on a regular basis meets those definitions. 

Lifting more weight and establishing new personal bests is beautiful.

Finding new ways we can move our bodies is beautiful.

Running or riding or swimming further or faster than we have before is beautiful.

I'll be sharing my "What's beautiful" pictures and vlogs along the course of the journey here on occasion and more frequently on Instagram tagged as #IWILL and #whatsbeautiful. Join me!

You can sign up individually to earn prizes along the way, and you can join teams!

I created a team and would love to have you join so we can track each other and keep up with our goals and steps along the way. You can join here. I know that having a group and motivators will continue pushing me to reach my goal of completing a triathlon.

What's your goal right now? It can by physical or emotional or anything else relating to yourself.

Are you going to join the competition?

How do you define beauty?

From One to Two!

I probably haven't mentioned (more than fifteen times at least) that I have a stress fracture. When I was told that I'm not allowed to run at first more than a month ago, I didn't know what to do...running has been a part of me for over two years now, and it's how I get out my aggression, celebrate, and think my best thoughts. 

I'm still super bummed and miss running so so much. I haven't put on shoes to head out the door pain free since the middle/end of March. I look at those images above and hope and worry at the same time. I'm nervous for how long it'll take me to get back to my "normal" paces, and I'm worried I won't be recovered in time to start building a base and training for Chicago...

But! That's not what this post is focusing on...though it'll always be in the back of my head.

What I want to focus on instead is how my dire hatred of cross training has turned into a love for it! I can now fill up an entire week in swimming laps, pool jogging, riding my bike, and doing weights. And instead of dreading doing those things, I'm actually finding it enjoyable.

I swam in high school and played water polo in college, so I'm not having any trouble hitting the pool to swim and run in the water.

Swimming is definitely relaxing, and the fact that there's no impact makes it less taxing than running. I love that I know what I'm doing when I swim. I know how to swim the strokes properly, though I don't always feel myself doing it the right way. 

Swimming gets my heart rate high when I make sets with challenging paces, and my calorie burn is often near where it would be for swimming. I actually don't mind pool running, though I know I look a little silly with my tennis shoes on running in the water. And I also really enjoy using a kickboard and kicking. 

The only reason swimming doesn't replace running completely for me is because I'm always counting laps. I can't completely zone out most days because I like to know how far I've gone or how many repetitions of certain distances I've done. Otherwise, I finally have reached a point where swimming is something I look forward to again versus feeling like it's something I don't only on days when I'm not supposed to run.

And my real love lately? My new bike...

I have spent so many afternoons and several mornings riding this thing around my neighborhoods and on bike trails. I love everything about biking, and it's absolutely moving into a place of being almost as enjoyable to me as running. Biking is a chance to let my mind wander. When I'm on the road with cars it does scare me a little, so I can't zone out as much, but when I'm on the closed trails I let my mind go where it wants.

I read in this month's Runner's World that you have to bike three times the distance on the bike to get the same effect as a run. The person writing said not to do it more than once per week as a replacement, so I don't know how much it's actually going to hold any kind of base for me. Either way, I love it.

And though neither swimming nor biking is replacing running, they're doing a great job filling in for now. The hidden gem in this tim period is that I'm learning to love crosstraining, which is something I've needed for a long time.

And speaking of biking, I'm looking forward to riding tonight. My bike hasn't been ridden for over a week now, and I can tell she's feeling pent up. And I'm looking forward to the day coming when I'll be able to add running back into the mix and then will be able to start triathlons!

What is your favorite way to work out?

If you're a runner, do you crosstrain? 

Thankful {Congratulations Kacey}

I had a wonderful weekend celebrating Kacey's graduation from The University of Alabama law school. Since I live 9 hours from my family, I don't get to see them much. This weekend we hung out, lounged around, attended a few gatherings, and enjoyed being together!

Spending time with my family makes me so thankful to have had parents who supported me in everything that I wanted to pursue growing up. They were there for every swim meet, performance, game, or event that family came to, and they're still there to this day. They never told me that I couldn't do something, and even when I had wild and crazy ideas, they helped me figure out ways to make them happen.

I talk to my parents on a daily basis, and without them I'm 100% sure I would have lost my marbles by now. I talk to my sister regularly, and I'm so excited for her plans from here. She's going to take the New York Bar Exam and head up in that directions after taking it in July. I'm so excited for her! And Kacey, I'll just plan on sleeping on that same blow up mattress in your New York apartment when that time comes.

A few scenes from the family gathering before graduation, the graduation, and the reception afterwards:

My family

Coleman Colisueum, the basketball and gymnastics arena

Kacey and some of her close friends from law school

Walking down the aisle to become a J.D.

The cutest cookies that the school had at the reception

All of us at the graduation reception

Tim couldn't make it because it was a last minute decision to go and he couldn't change his work schedule. Landing in Tampa last night and being so glad to be at home and to feel like Tampa is where my life is now and to love it was equally as wonderful as spending time with family.
What did you do this weekend? Do you get to see your family a lot?

Weekly Workout Roundup 4/29-5/5

This wasn't a good week of workouts for me for a few reasons. Most of them are just excuses, so I'll post my favorite quote to look at when I haven't made excuses.

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But, this week I did. It rained and thundered several days out of the week, and I'm traveling to Tuscaloosa to see my sister's law school graduation. So here are my workouts and explanations. Next week I'll be 100% better. I'm making a turnaround with eating as well starting tomorrow, as mentioned in my May goals.

Monday: I rode the stationary bike for 50 minutes and did an arm circuit that I found on Elle's blog.

Tuesday: I went swimming and did 2400 yards. Thunder and lightning cut me short by 100 yards. Here's that workout that I made up for myself:

Wednesday: It was pouring down rain and I couldn't swim or bike outside and didn't feel like riding the stationary bike again, so I made an excuse and decided to take a day off.

Thursday: It was raining again but I dragged the stationary bike inside and rode if for 45 minutes before doing another one of the arm circuits from Elle's blog.

Friday: I had told myself Wednesday when I took the day off that I'd get up and do the stationary bike on Friday morning before work, but I was over that this week and just took another rest day. After work I headed straight to the airport to fly to Birmingham via Atlanta. I didn't get into town until 9 PM to drive the hour and a half (in the rain...it followed me) to Tuscaloosa.

Saturday: I woke up before my family and went to my sister's apartment gym. I did a long arm circuit from Mary and rode the oddly positioned bike for 20 minutes. Then I followed in Page's footsteps and took an awkward mirror picture at the awkward apartment gym.

Sunday: After walking around all day yesterday I took today off and slept in. I'm really hoping that I didn't do more damage to my foot yesterday and am also wondering if I should call my ortho to get a boot for my foot. I still just don't understand why I'm not in one...

I'm hanging out with my family all day then heading home tonight. It's been a whirlwind weekend!

How were your workouts this week? Linkup with me and Kat!

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Airport Thoughts + A Big Congratulations!

I'm at the airport writing as I head off to Birmingham (via Atlanta) to go to my sister's graduation from University of Alabama Law school. There's something I love about airports, and every time I get to one I always have the same series of thoughts...
1. I park the car and I get out and walk through the parking garage and wonder where all of the cars' owners are in the world. I'll never ever know, but I always imagine that people are in luxurious places or exotic international destinations. 
...and then when I get in the airport I worry about whether I've locked my car for at least 45 minutes before the feeling subsides. My car automatically locks after a couple of minutes, but it doesn't stop me from worrying...
2. I get through security and head to my gate and then I always want to get something to eat. It's like Pavlov's dog. I'm in an airport, therefore I need to eat. I grabbed an afternoon coffee and then a couple of snacks to last until a get to Birmingham around 9:00 PM.

3. After securing snacks and water, I immediately sit and start figuring out if there's a way to get to my destination faster. I honestly can't tell you a single time that it actually works out, but because I like to get to the airport super early, I can usually hit the flight headed to my destination sooner. Today I actually headed to the desk to try to get on the earlier flight before getting a snack, but it didn't work out. So here I sit with my original flight time that has now been delayed...

Am I the only one that does any of these things? Do you have these same thoughts? Or do you just head to the airport and mind your own business and stick to the schedule?

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I'm excited to celebrate with my sister this weekend! She's going to be a law school graduate! I'm assuming that means I'll get free legal advice from this point forward (because, you know, I find myself having questions for a lawyer that go unanswered all the time?). She's worked so hard for this, and I can't wait to see where she goes from here!

Us with dad

I'm hoping I'll be able to find a gym at a hotel or my sister's apartment complex. It's been raining all week in Tampa and I've been forced to the indoor bike a bunch. I'm looking forward to a bunch of long bike rides next week when I get back to Tampa!

What are you up to this weekend?!

Not buying any of the things...(and May goals)

Money isn't a normal topic I post about on here, but something happened in April that I thought was worth sharing. In the past I've been a bit of a spender (to say the least...). I bought clothes, shoes, running stuff, jewelry, monthly box subscriptions, or other random items that I can't always recount. Tim has been very focused on saving and reaching savings goals and has been trying to get me to buy in for a few months now. I saved quite a bit in March to appease him, but I broke records (for myself) in April; this made me pretty proud of myself as well. I definitely saved more this past month than I have ever in a month. And when the month ended and I saw all that I had saved, I immediately had a thought:
"I'm going to buy more stuff in May."

A few Instagram pictures of random purchases that I can honestly now say haven't gotten their use...

I texted this to Tim, mainly as a joke, but also because I decided that I could spend more and still save enough to make myself and Tim happy.
But then I spent some time thinking yesterday and today about what I didn't buy this month that I had bought in previous months and missed. And the earth started shaking and the heavens opened up, and I realized that there wasn't anything I didn't buy this month that I felt like I missed out on. And to take it even a step further, I thought really hard about whether I was less happy last month than I was in previous months, and I have to tell you that my thoughts led me directly to a resounding: not at all.
I'm not less happy or satisfied because I didn't buy things. 
This may sound ridiculous to have to actually have to type out, but there have been so many months that I've set savings goals and haven't reached them because I bought stupid things that I later can't even explain or necessarily remember (probably a few of the things pictured above). Maybe it's even crossing the border of sounding shopaholic-ish, but I wanted to document it. I never thought "things" made me happy per se, but I guess I thought in some way I would miss them more when they weren't arriving on my doorstep or being carried into my house on a semi-regular basis. I don't. 
There have always been things I've seen and wanted to buy, and I would decide to buy them, whether or not I needed them. I didn't do it this past month...and in the end I haven't even missed it.
Are you in control of your spending? Do you set savings goals and meet them monthly? Have you ever thought happiness and buying things would feel associated?
And that leads me to a few goals this month...I haven't set them in a few months, but I want to for May.

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1. Track every food I put into my mouth everyday.

2. Follow Laura's Sugar Detox 2 Challenge for the days assigned.

3. Follow the Tone It Up Diet from May 6th to June 3rd.

4. Finish Born to Run.

5. Save at least 75% of what I saved in April.

6. Take my thyroid pill everyday (I need to go more into this another time...I'm so bad at this one).

And those are my goals...they're not lofty, but they're things I'm going to stick to.

Did you make goals for the month? What's the one you want to focus on the most?