30 Days of Gratitude - Day 25

I am very grateful that I had a chance to take an hour long walk with my sister and husband today.  It was chilly and cloudy and felt so invigorating.   Walking is great exercise but even more so, it's stress relieving.  The fresh air clears my head and gives me energy to focus on the myriad of things in my life.  The past month has been a difficult one for me and I have so much on my mind.  Between the calorie burning and stress relief, walking is win:win in my book.  I am hopeful I'll get a chance tomorrow for another nice walk.

What are you thankful for?

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 8

Today I was grateful for my resolve, my dedication, my "I Can Do It" attitude.  I normally work out in the morning and today I got working on other projects after breakfast.  I knew I needed to work out, but the day was quickly passing by.  And I was stressing about it.  Stressing about not getting in my exercise, not meeting my goals of exercising 5 out of 7 days a week.  I was losing focus on my projects as my mindset was consumed with 'not exercising'.  Everything is so much easier when I work out in the morning.  Because it's done for the day.  And I move on to other tasks.

By 2:30 it was really eating at me that I hadn't exercised yet.  I was tired from the project I was working on and all I wanted to do was sit down and read for 30 minutes.  But at 3:30 I grabbed a water bottle and headed down stairs to our home gym.  I turned on the TV and got on the exercise bike.  I did a 30 minute interval work out that was tough.  At about 13 minutes in, I was sweating up a storm and breathing heavily and I wanted to stop.  But I said "I Can Do This" and I kept going.  According to the heart rate monitor I burned 345 calories and I biked 7.8 miles almost all up hill.

When I finished, relief washed over me that I was done with exercise for the day.  I then went on to tackle my other projects and finish some work.  The burden was lifted and I was productive the rest of the day.  Tomorrow, I am definitely working out before 9 am.  The stress it causes to delay it just isn't worth it.  I am really grateful that I dug deep and found the tiniest bit of motivation to get on that bike today.

What are you thankful for?

weekend excitment

It's Saturday morning, the sun in shining, the air is cool and I'm looking forward to today and the days to follow.  Celebrating Sarah's 18 birthday with family and friends on Monday.  I'm working her birthday slide show, it's going to be a winner - can't wait for her to see it!  Glad to have Kristin home for the weekend all the way from Maryland! Will see Jake also this weekend.   I'm excited, because I enjoy spending time with my family and the moments when we are all together are getting less frequent now that everyone is getting older.  Definitely going to savor the moments!

I rode the exercise bike for 30 minutes this morning.  I challenged myself to a programmed workout with varying degrees of difficulty and I feel good.  Exercise really helps me clear my mind and helps me put things in perspective.

I am smiling just thinking about the fun ahead this weekend!

You Capture - Work

I thought this was a tough challenge this week.   How do you capture work?  According to Websters dictionary it's a noun, adjective and verb.  Do I take a picture of my computer, my 10 key, the washing machine, the cleaning supplies, my messy kitchen?   I didn't know where to begin.  Then I looked at it in the bigger of picture of things because to have work means that you are alive and breathing.  My body works every day pumping blood, firing neurons and delivering oxygen to organs among many other seemingly silent behind the scenes functions all while I go about my daily tasks whether it be - preparing taxes, doing a load of laundry, making phone calls or preparing a meal.  And my body does this day in and day out without a lot of intellectual thought about it on my part.  And it usually functions quite well.  And for that I'm grateful.  I exercise, try to eat right and for the most part get enough sleep - but I know I can do better and I should because my body is my vessel, what allows me to be who I am on a day to day to basis.  Without it, I'd be 6 feet under.  So, to capture the essence of WORK this week, I took these two pictures of what I do to keep my body working.  Today was a double duty day, I walked 3 1/2 miles with a friend - took us 55 minutes and I did a programmed workout on the exercise bike for 25 minutes. 

 

Check out more You Capture - Work pictures at I Should be Folding Laundry.