Summer Lulls. Haute Dog.

"A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession." - Albert Camus

This quote makes me think of my life.  When you are on track, life is beautiful, when you are off, the only person you really have to face is yourself and that is the biggest beezy of judging of them all.  I myself decided to jump off the wagon.  I "needed" a break from being healthy.  It sounds much more ridiculous when you write it down than it does when you actually think it... 

Jackalope and I lacing up for a run... a much needed run...

I seem to always hit this summer lull when I think I am done wearing a bikini and ready for nachos, margaritas and whatever the eff sounds delicious and naughty.   I feel it coming on.  I feel myself letting go of my morning runs and my menu planning.  I feel myself reaching for the cookies at BBQs that were previously ignored.  I feel myself being a jerk, so I should soon feel my foot in my own arse.

Mommmm move your ass!

I don't like feeling bad about myself.  I don't like being angry at myself for skipping my run and sleeping an extra 35 minutes.  And neither does Sir Jackalope, so he starts barking at 6am and my lazy donk gets out of bed.  Not for him, but for us both... Though mostly him because I cannot sleep anyways.

 Lights Out!

I returned the favor with an extra long, extra hot afternoon run.  Jack prefers morning runs, Emma prefers just sleeping and having cute photos taken of her.

Emma Lillian the Lioness!

She also got a hair cut...

Someone's gotta play the part of the pretty blonde...

Today we are almost back on track, minus the 2 homemade margaritas I've sipped.  They are Skinny Girl margaritas, sooo that's fine eh?  Jackalope and I ran this morning, we will be running tomorrow, and we're getting back on track.  Sometimes I am just lazy, and sometimes that is just the way it is.

xo

Family. Crazy. Balance.

"Commitment is like being pregnant, you either are or you're not.  You can't be kind of pregnant." - Susie Q. 

I have been trying real hard to implement balance in my life over the past few months, and for some reason it reminds me of this saying my coach liked to say now and again.  Pretty sure she used it with two purposes, to scare us into how committed to the game and our team we needed to be, and to also remind us to not get pregnant.  Either way, that ish worked.

 Susie herself! 

 She had some brilliant one liners and analogies, but of all the important things she taught me about character, responsibility and life, this one was my favorite.  You have to commit yourself to being balanced.  If you limp in one day out the next, then you're technically out of balance right there.  It's a tall order when you think of the balls we all have lobbed in the air at any given time:

work workout.healthy eating.hubs.dogs.running.running with Jackalope.cleaning the house.yoga?writing a blog.watching TV .not stepping in the ish that is drama and dragging it around the house (it smells).flossing.being a better golfer.perfecting protein shakes.slo-pitch (2 teams).getting ready for OTL.grilling out this Sunday.fixing up the new house.rocking your new job.making sure Jackalope doesn't drop a dooce on the neighbor's lawn...

In the end it's family that can hold your hand to keep you balanced so you don't fall, or laughs with at you and then helps you up.

Balancing this family can be a challenge wicked awesome good time.

You don't get to pick your family at birth, but you can as life goes on.  My real extended family is crazy.  We're talking out of control ruin your Christmas, birthday and funerals type crazy.  Luckily, at my core, my mom, dad, brother and hubs are awesome and have attracted the awesomeness of others to create our own brood. 

Someone's gotta hold Jackalope... Granddaddy loves his Granddogger, and refuses to hold his tongue about wanting a real Grandchild.

What I really appreciate about my melting pot of a family is that they just let me be.  They let me be cranky.  They let me eat bird food.  They let me go on rants about eating healthier as a family.  Most of them are just as competitive as I am (which is a whole 'notha level of crazy)...  My family takes enjoying-life pretty seriously, and in the summertime the sentiment is heightened.  We are known for volleyball BBQs in our back yard and have only been shut down by the cops twice in the 15 years or so I can remember playing for noise violations... 

My serves are as well mannered as my popped collar...

We are also known for food.  You cannot come to our house and leave feeling like you don't have to vomit from over eating.  It's not okay, you will want to vomit.  But in the past I have found that I gain weight every summer during the time when I am supposed to don a bikini and parade with these crazies at the river.  It doesn't make me happy, and I have yet to stay in balance through a summer.

My happy place is bringing thai lime cashews to the party...

But this year is different.  I am not going to kind-of be in balance, eat well during the week, and feed the screaming bloody murder chubby kid in my stomach on the weekends.  I am bringing healthy indulgences to the party like thai lime cashews, and eating what makes me happy, but not on behalf of the entire population because it's a "free day" and I will likely never see food again.

See only crazy sometimes.  Lies, crazy doesn't just go dormant...

And again, the fam dam taught me something about myself.  Balance in my eating, in my health, in my life and in my relationships comes down to commitment to each of those things separately.  It's not my family's job to yell at me for eating a plate of cheese sauce, they'd probably knuckle bump me, but they do make it their job to tell me when I am being a buzzkill to their good time.  I.E. Me overeating and then complaining about how terrible of a person I am for hours to come.  And mind you most of this self bashing happened to the old me, before I committed to a healthier me inside and out.  But when Jezebel gets out of her cage from time to time, I am thankful my family has no problem smacking her back into place.

Xo

balance is everything... and other Tone it Up tips.

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, And loudly proclaiming, WOW !!!! What a ride!" (This quote used to be taped to the inside of my locker in college, still holds true...)

In the past couple of days I have had more than a handful of friends and readers ask me, Do you like the "tone it up" plan, does it work, how do you have time? So here are my collective a's to a few q's, mixed in with some tips.

Drove to work today with wet hair to account for my run... Here is the end result.

it works. do it. make time for it, even if your hair is messy everyday.

Yes. The Tone It Up plan works, and it is worth paying for. I have lost some good lbs and some good inches. But more importantly, I FEEL good. Some people look good but don't feel good because their approach is self debilitating (ie my previous self). This plan works for me because it is fun, different everyday, and positive. The saying is true: If you tell me I suck at life, I'm gonna suck at life. If you tell me I rock at life, I rock at life. (Yep, just made that saying up. Spread it like buttah.)

Best Christmas present ever from the hubs.  There's just something amazing about checking off my 30 minute  or hour long morning run.

tick tock tick tock

How do you have time? I don't have time, I have to make the time. I work full time plus a few side projects, plus moving into a new house, plus living the good life. But what's the good life worth if you don't feel good? I wake up an hour earlier every morning to get a good run in. Sometimes I do my tone it up or resistance workout during my lunch break, sometimes at the end of the day, sometimes I just can't squeeze it in. But that's fine, so long as I have had my morning run and my morning coffee, all is in balance in the world.

ask for help, ask for friends

Sometimes you can do it all by yourself, sometimes you just need a little help. I need friends to sweat with. I need my hubs to understand and support my eating and work out needs (he does fully). If you are overwhelmed you have to communicate to the ones you love as to why and what they can or cannot do. We all hate it when people ask us if they look fat, so stop asking, and if they do ask if they want to workout since they don't feel amazing about themselves right this second. (Just a suggestion, or you can give me frozen yogurt that helps).

Balance is Everything

I'm not perfect, not even close, with my workouts, eating or life in general. Sometimes I have too much to do in one day to workout, so if that means I have to dance all night to burn off the calories I neglected that morning, so be it. But really, if you don't let yourself have a little fun now and then, you're probably gonna suck at life more often than you are a rock star. Eat well. Be well. Dance a lot. And yes, TONE IT UP.

small detour, big realization

"He that can have Patience, can have what he will." - Benjamin Franklin

Let's go let's go let's go let's goooo

Meet my morning running buddy equipped with a built in alarm clock! In the past two weeks buddy boy has grown very fond of our morning runs. So much that he starts barking promptly at 6:15 so we are out the door and on the move by 6:30. What a guy. He is a terrific running partner. He is faster than I am, gets distracted easily, and warns off anything that dares walk near us. What more could a gal truly ask for?

By 7:30am Jackalope is curled up in the laundry fresh out of the dryer and ready to reenter his slumber.

As devoted as this running buddy is, I still managed to take a small detour on my getting it right getting it tight mission. Why? I ate too much cheese, did not plan out my meals, and decided my weekend was fair game for all things sugar.

Exhibit A. caprese at 9pm on a Thursday... First wrong turn of the week. 

There is nothing wrong with a little caprese salad once and again.  But when you almost eat the entire log of mozarella at 9pm on a Thursday when you are in full blown bikini shape up mode, there's a small problem. It was like the gateway drug to my weekend of terrible food choices.

Exhibit B. Hello 1995 it's nice to see you again. 

You didn't hear slurpees were making a comeback? Well apparently they were. Granted it was 85 degrees and I ran 3 miles that morning... Ironically my 3 miles did not cancel out my slurpee, #hurtful. It wasn't really the slurpee that bothered me, it was the "why" behind my detour... I popped on the scale Saturday and it didn't budge from the week before. What gives, what's the point, self-loathing, terrible judgments of myself ensues.

Back on track side braid... Aka I had 5 minutes to get ready this morning... 

I wish I had the ability to just say "so what, it means nothing, and you worked your donk off this week". I am slowing trying to become that person who rolls with it with patience, faith and hard work, but my olden ways of self belittlement creeps in now and again. Nonetheless, this morning at 6:30 my running buddy and I were right back on track and ready to kick the ish out of this week. Before I started to write this post this morning I really thought, I guess I shouldn't post about my progress, or maybe I need to fudge the results a bit... I'm sorry, whaaaa? Who lies to themselves that extravagantly? It was just a flash thought but the fact that it was there frightened me.

Feeling a rut, I wore 2 lucky bracelets today just because. My Grandma's gold links, and my Marc Jacobs haute pink pretty little thing.

A ton of you have commented on my progress and have gone so far as to email me your praise and encouragement. I am super thankful for all of your thoughts and wishes. If it weren't for you lovelies holding me accountable, I'd probably be lying to myself and moving nowhere. Much love.

Equipped with two of my favorite bracelets and some tougher skin against myself, it's sure to be a better week. Isn't it amazing how a little fashion is a big pick-me-up sometimes?  Have a rockin' week. xo