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?

looking for motivation

I have lost my motivation to do much of anything this afternoon, so instead I choose to blog.  There are so many things I should be doing:

1. Laundry (never ending I know, but starting it would be a plus)
2. Start prepping dinner (seeing that it's already 4:01 and the chicken is still semi-frozen, dinner is going to be late tonight), 
3. Clean up office so I can find my desk (distressing that I just can't keep it neat and organized - the daily flow of incoming mail/paperwork apparently gets the better of me)
4. Sort through pictures from our trip to Florida
5. Pay bills 

This morning started out with at nice breakfast with Jake at Tams.  We had a good heart to heart about a lot of things and cleared the air on some issues that had been bugging us both.  He has his apartment lease through the end of July and will then move into the TKE house.  I am really glad they finally have a house.  It was their original house and after a different fraternity lived in it, it's now theirs again.  I think there is so much to be gained from living in a fraternity.  Being part of a fraternity (or sorority) is a great experience.  So many people give it a bad name and I don't think it's deserved.  I will save my rant on greek haters for another post.  The bond and friendship that is developed in a fraternity/sorority are second to none.  Though Jake has been a TKE for over a year now, they haven't had a common living space.  But that is changing in August!  Woo hoo!  I just hope Jake doesn't get the really scary, dark, dank, basement rooms.  Personally I don't think they are fit for human living!  The rest of the house will be nice once some windows, dryall and rooms and repaired and painted.

The day progressed to listing some items on eBay.  I opted for 24 hour sales because I don't want a sale ending on a weekend, especially not a 3 day holiday weekend.  I learned that the hard way on a previous sale.  Already have watchers and bids - this time tomorrow I should be a couple hundred dollars richer.

After a quick lunch of a pickle (my breakfast with Jake was still sitting with me) I went out for a walk with Kathy.  I haven't walked in a while and it felt good.  3 miles in 70 degree temps.  Nice, very nice.  She and I have such a nice friendship.  I enjoy her company thoroughly and we chatter about big things, little things and everything in between.  I won't see her for quite a while though, she is living with Bill and Danny on Friday and will return on the 11th.  I am leaving the 11th and returning the 16th.  I am going to miss our walks, talks and coffee get togethers.

After my walk, Sarah and I had fun looking at ratemyprofessor.com to check out potential profs for her upcoming classes at UW this fall.  She originally registered yesterday for 3 courses, but changed them all today.  She was kind of bummed because the communications class she wanted to take was open to FIGS (freshman interest group - which she is not doing) only, as was the psych class.  Also finding courses to work with the different times of lectures and quiz sections was a bit challenging.  But in the end it all came together.  Her courses seem very interesting and the professors got good ratings and she is happy.  Her fall schedule is Archeology 101 (exploring archeology), CHID 110 (Question of Human Nature) and Philosophy 120 (intro to logic).

Here is a picture of Sarah's graduation from PHS earlier this month.  I think it's rather nice and evokes good memories of a fun weekend.  Isn't this a great family shot?  I sure think so!
 
If you are wanting to catch up on Kristin's adventures in Rome check out her BLOG.  I think you'll enjoy it, I sure do!


Now, if only someone could light a fire under my read end so I could be productive.  I really need to find some motivation and get some stuff done!