reflection – Page 2

Being Alive, New Nickname and Relaxing: MIMM#68

April 25, 2016 by Alicia 2 Comments

Happy Monday!! I had a pretty good laid back weekend mixed with good workouts. Work hard, rest hard?!

Friday I went for a lunch time walk along the river, fully enjoying the weather and the views. I was thinking about how happy I was. I don’t know what it has been lately. I feel just so much happier. I think the sunshine everyday and getting out for a walk during lunch time has helped a ton. For a while I was super stressed about all the things I had to get done, but lately, I have been slowly taking those things step by step to make progress and have been living in the present more.

Well just as I was thinking all this, I turned around to make my way back down the trail and back to the office when I heard sirens. I was on a bike path and under a bridge with a highway, so I first thought they were coming from above me but then they sounded really close. I turned around and noticed 2 police cars driving down the bike path which is really only as wide as a car, so everyone was moving to the side. I got to the stairs to the street where I came down and that’s where the police cars were. It turned out someone had decided to jump off the bridge to the river, most likely attempting to kill herself. I was there just as an emergency personnel was swimming out to the patrol boat and they were pulling the person into the boat. The person looked to be alive and I stood by some other people watching and we were all hoping that she gets the help she needs.

I was a bit shaken as I walked back to the office about what had just happened. Talk about quite the lunch break!

I started thinking about my life and even though sometimes I am lonely, I always find a way to cope and lately have been enjoying each day. I know this isn’t the greatest story to read on a Monday morning, but I wanted to share it because I think it is so important to reach out for help if you are going down that path. Sometimes I just take some time to journal and that helps me. I am still writing down what I am grateful for each day and Friday, I was grateful just for Being Alive.

Moving onto more positive things for marvelous in my Monday. Friday night I had a long phone conversation with my dad as it was just his birthday Thursday and I couldn’t reach him Thursday. It was nice to catch up. I then decided to watch the movie, She’s the Man. It was playing at the gym the other day (we have a cardio theater where you can bike, run or go on an elliptical and watch whatever movie is playing). I then made my way to bed.

Saturday morning around 5am, I woke up to a brief charley horse in my leg, OUCH. I knew I hadn’t had enough water the other day. I was able to fall back asleep until 7 at least and then got up to make protein pancakes and drink a ton of water.

I headed to the store and then got a workout carrying tires to my car as I was getting an oil change and swapping my winter tires off. Last year I waited until June to do that, but I figured I was due for an oil change and best to do them together. My winter tires came in handy the first two weekends in April with snow, but I am hoping we have moved past that.

While my car was at the shop, I went next door to the gym to swim, convenient. I was worried about my leg bothering me, but it actually felt nice floating and kicking. It did start to bother me around lap 80, but I somehow pushed through and got to 110, just over 1.5 miles. My fiancé now calls me Dory because of my long swims. I told him I have a better memory than Dory though lol. [Side note: Can’t wait for Finding Dory in theaters in June!!]

It was pretty much perfect timing when I got back to the shop as I only had to wait 10 minutes for my car to be done. When I got home and got my second tire workout carrying tires back inside, I was hungry so immediately I found some food, turned on HGTV and ate.

I had so many thoughts about different blog posts and things I wanted to share on this space, that I grabbed my laptop and just started typing out the ideas while watching HGTV. I could really watch HGTV all day…

I finally moved off the couch and started dinner early. I was still kinda hungry. I ate dinner around 4:30, a bit early. Then I was satisfied for a while before eating some chips for a snack later. I also enjoyed a bit of yoga, the most I moved after swimming lol. Then it was back to writing and more HGTV. I’d say it was a perfect balance of productive and relaxing.

Sunday morning the sun woke me up early but that was fine as I had a very productive morning. After eating some breakfast, I headed to the gym for a quick workout. When I got home, I did some cleaning, meal prep and reading before heading out to teach yoga at a different gym.

After yoga, I continued with meal prep and also ate some of it for lunch. I made cauliflower fried rice with some chicken. Rather than being completely lazy, I decided to tackle a few boxes in my closet. I sorted some more stuff to get rid of and also made a couple piles of some things I would like to try to give away. I realized that many of my boxes are books and maybe one day I should get a bookcase, especially as I keep buying books to read these days…

It was a beautiful day outside, so after a while of being inside and knowing everything was prepped for the week, I decided to take a walk. I enjoyed the fresh air and can’t wait until pool season starts so I can head to the pool to soak up some sun.

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

I am Proud: My Gym Story TOL #44

April 21, 2016 by Alicia 10 Comments

Hello and Happy Thursday. Also a Happy Birthday to my Dad!!

A little #throwbackThursday Prom May 2008, how has it been 8 years since high school?! My dad was going to the Chicago Symphony that night with a friend so he was dressed up too.

Alright back to present day, I feel like April is absolutely flying by now. I am loving every moment of sunshine I get not just during lunch but also after work at home. I felt my patio doors were useless through the winter as I wasn’t home during the short daylight hours. It has made me so much happier to have more sunlight and even see the sun starting to rise when I come back from the gym at 6am.

Speaking of the gym, it was a year ago that I got back to my weight lifting as Yoga Teacher Training came to an end. Due to the demands of yoga training and working full time, I canceled my gym membership and then I moved too.

I really wanted to be able to do a pull up unassisted (which I was able to do about 3 years ago and lost the strength) and I finally can do about 2 in a row today! I am so happy I have been building my strength back up. I started with about 70 lbs assistance and now do reps with 10-15 lbs assistance after attempting 2 or so without assistance.

Of course there are plenty of strong yogis out there, especially when it comes to handstands and advanced moves. Heck, just doing chaturangas and balancing poses like warrior 3, builds strength. I do love yoga, but I love it as part of a balance of all my working out.

I believe I have a deeper love for weight lifting. Weight lifting makes me feel empowered, strong and more confident in myself. I also feel that my body responds well to weight lifting, toning up the muscles and losing excess tummy fat. I actually struggled in yoga training because I have a bad shoulder and other parts of my body, like my foot or knee would start to act up sometimes. As soon as I got back to weight lifting, these were less of an issue. Remember that every body is different.

I used to be that girl who would never touch a weight. Actually I never even would go to a gym other than to swim from time to time. I was never a cardio junkie and while people thought I was in amazing shape, I really could hardly run and discovered I was actually pretty weak during my first time at the gym.

In Fall 2010, Brian introduced me to weight lifting. We were both newbies, though he started in the summer and could see the difference in his body that weight lifting was doing. He was more tone and losing fat. Together, we would do workouts a couple mornings before class, sometimes my suite mate would also join. It was so much fun! From then on, I fell in love with weight lifting. I honestly felt the best in my body than I probably ever have at that time in my life.

When I moved home in June 2012, I joined a local big gym and though I was hesitant to work out by myself and lift weights, I did what I could. In college, I did more deadlifts, barbell squats and bench press than now as I still feel the need for a spotter, especially to increase my weights, but mostly for my form. I know my form needs improvement especially with deadlifts.

I focus on form, I focus on what I can do in the amount of time that I have and you know what? I feel great! Could I improve more? Absolutely. Could I work harder? Probably with someone with me. But mainly I go to the gym for me. I go because I love it. I go because it destresses me and makes me feel better. It’s become part of my lifestyle. When I increase the weights and push through the reps, I feel so proud of myself.

One day, hopefully Brian and I can work out together more and I can improve the big 3: deadlifts, barbell squats and barbell bench press. But for now, I am proud of what I have accomplished on my own. I am proud of my progress. I am proud that I get up at 4:45am to get my workout in at 5am. I found a way to make it work with my schedule because it is important to me.

I should also mention these last 2 months, I haven’t been entirely by myself as I participated in Becky’s core bootcamp last month and currently doing her booty bootcamp (so much harder than core for me!).

Having a 20 minute or so workout laid out for me to tag onto the end of my working out is perfect and I really did feel so much stronger in my core and even my posture felt better after the month of March with the core bootcamp. I highly recommend it. Booty Bootcamp I have had to modify a bit just as I am not quite strong enough to fully complete some of them, but I do already notice my butt shaping up lol.

That’s a little bit about my story of weight lifting. My goal is one day to become a personal trainer, especially to share with other women who might be hesitant to weight lift, how good it is for you and how amazing you can feel. In case you need more reasons to weight lift as a woman, check out Lauren’s blog post from the other day.

What’s your favorite form of exercise?

Post Vacation Blues and Perfect Day: TOL #36

February 11, 2016 by Alicia 8 Comments

In case you missed it, I recapped Day 1 in Disney World yesterday. Will have the other recaps up next week.

I don’t know what it was when I returned from vacation, but Monday I was dreading. Back to reality and sitting at a desk for 8 hours. Monday I felt sick to my stomach the whole day. Though I felt a bit better once I got home after work, knowing I had to go out again to teach yoga in the evening was rough. I thought maybe that doing the yoga flow with the class would help but even holding downdog myself was hard. I know I didn’t teach my best on Monday but I do hope the class enjoyed the challenging sequence I made for them. I made sure to take a shower and head right to bed when I got home on Monday night and slept really well. Unfortunately Tuesday morning, my stomach still felt a bit off. Instead of my usual oatmeal, I opted for dry cereal and still had some bacon so that I would be full for a while.

The morning at work went on and I was finally catching up on work after being gone for a week. Shortly after lunch, my gym supervisor called me as a class opened up at the gym closer to me on Tuesday night. Wanting to stick to my 2 classes a week, I decided to drop my Monday class. I know the class has really enjoyed me but I also know that at this time I just can’t handle teaching 3 classes every week, my full time job and my almost daily workouts. I know some people work 2 jobs daily and I think those people are amazing. For me, though, I know I function best when I can sleep for at least 7 hours a night and also have some down time in the evening. Part of why I switched to morning workouts is so that I could have some more time in the evening to relax and I really liked that schedule. Adding in yoga teaching this last month to my schedule has thrown me off a bit as I haven’t been for a swim in weeks with different things going on during the weekends and having the sniffles. I seem to have come home with another cold or something.

I don’t know why but after that phone call my day finally seemed to get better, like a switch in my head turned on and I was even humming to myself that song from Legally Blonde “Perfect Day.” Though this could also be because I read Jordan’s post about a perfect day, so somehow that song popped into my head later as I started to think what would be my perfect day?

Sometimes I just get into a slump, lack of motivation and drive. To get out of it can be hard, but usually a workout helps. I seriously felt great working out on Monday morning then maybe lack of sleep and too many cookies caught up to me? Sometimes you just aren’t in the mood for anything, that’s when I take a night to sit on the couch and watch Gilmore Girls until bed time. Gilmore Girls is my go to show, when I am bored, sad, lonely, background noise and sometimes just when I am happy. I watch it all the time and after December and my Christmas movie watching was over, it was back to season 1 for Gilmore Girls and now I am currently finishing season 2. I can’t even tell you how many times I have watched every episode. Occasionally I still notice little things in the background I never saw before.

Anyway back to my perfect day thoughts….

I would say the day would start with making pancakes for breakfast, serving some to sleepy Brian in bed while I read some blogs. Mid morning I would head to the gym for a workout. After the gym, I would cook some lunch, maybe some chicken tacos (with red onion, cilantro, avocado and tomato).

For the afternoon, I would love to lay on the beach and read for a while. Add in some yoga on the beach and take some photos of the beach and my yoga practice.

Then in the evening spend some time writing, cook dinner (maybe some pork stir fry?) and then enjoy a movie with Brian on the couch.

That all sounds pretty perfect to me. Besides the beach, I can usually make that happen on a weekend when Brian is around. I feel it incorporates things I love which are working out, cooking, sunshine, outdoor yoga, writing and cozy time with Brian.

I may not have my perfect day everyday (yet <- I can dream), I may have days where I just lay around and don’t feel great, but I am grateful for each day and I am glad I am starting to feel better. I am definitely missing that Florida sun and wearing shorts though. I am hoping it warms up again soon, but this weekend Saturday is a low of 4 degrees….You will find me inside my 70 degree apartment for a bit longer.

Do you ever find yourself unmotivated? How do you get out of that?

What would your perfect day include?

Yoga Girl Event 1/14/16 Philadelphia

January 15, 2016 by Alicia Leave a Comment

In line with my post about facing fears speaking in front of people, here is another “scary” thing for me: attending an event alone. Like you mean I have to find my way there and back and sit there while everyone else talks to their friend and here I am looking around, who can I talk to? I am going to feel so alone. The thoughts that go through my head…

       Let me tell you, it’s not that bad. You know what is worse? Sitting around waiting for the right friend to come along who will go to events with you. I can’t tell you how many times I used to wait around for people and finally I decided I can’t wait anymore. Maybe you do have that friend but they live in another state and are unable to come. Maybe you haven’t found that friend that shares the same desire to attend the event you want to. Whatever the case, ask yourself this, do you want to go? Is the answer a definite YES that you would consider going alone? Because if you really don’t want to miss it, you will take that step to make it happen. That is what I believe.
      It was about 2 months ago, before thanksgiving, The Gratitude Tour was announced and the day tickets went on sale I will admit I was highly distracted at work purchasing my ticket. I debated should I go because I mean the cost was crazy for a yoga class and it was in a somewhat sketchy looking area ( I was “driving” around Google Maps) but I mean other yogis would be around so that might help. The event was also late in the evening which I wasn’t fond of but I was determined to make it work. OK ticket purchased. Now I didn’t have to worry about the transportation until January when the event was happening.
         I finally decided to give Uber a go and it worked. [Glad I made it home and didn’t go missing.] What worked out even better is that just a week before the event they announced they were overbooked and so they added another class earlier. I tried to switch my ticket but the ticket place wouldn’t let me, however someone saw my Facebook comment and contacted me and we emailed tickets and swapped. I am so glad that worked out!! I truly believe things happen for a reason.

I made it safely to the place. Rachel started the practice by drawing an Angel Card. The card read “You are loved.” I mean I almost had tears in my eyes as she read that, seeing as I was attending this event alone, it was a great card for the practice, reminding me that I am loved. I practiced yoga with some beautiful souls and Yoga Girl herself (Rachel Brathen). We had a short Q and A and then a time for hugging. She really spreads her love and shares her experiences. She is an amazing yoga teacher. All her words flowed. My pictures may be blurry from the lighting, she also doesn’t take selfies and I forgot my book for her to sign but I got a hug from her and I fully enjoyed the experience and that is what matters.

Every penny I spent between the ticket, the Uber rides, was all worth it for this one night. I am grateful that I attended by myself. The other thing with a yoga event, is that you are never truly alone. We leaned on one another through practice and it was beautiful. Just picture 200 people in tree pose, resting their hands on their neighbor’s shoulders, then we all in unison lean forward to warrior 3. Community is powerful and the practice was beautiful. It flew by in a blink, but I was glad I remained present throughout the practice and had time to stick around at the end.

I then treated myself to some dinner, because I was so hungry after. Potbelly’s for a quick dinner and then train ride home.

A wonderful evening and date night with myself. I think it’s important to do things on your own that you are interested in and take a night out with yourself.

When I got home, I looked up at the sky, such a clear night. I spotted the big dipper, maybe the little dipper too. I could stare at the stars for hours as I don’t see them often and I just thought, it truly was a beautiful evening. I then read my comments on yesterday’s post and I can’t thank you readers enough. Between Yoga Girl and this blog writing this week, my heart is so full.

My phrase for the year: Don’t let fear stop you!!

Have a great weekend!!

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