Learn to Look for the Positives

I have been debating on what I wanted to talk about next. But a few things happened over this Thanksgiving Holiday that have made me seriously take pause and reflect a bit. Of course Thanksgiving is meant to be a day of thanks. It is meant to be a day to enjoy family and friends. I probably did not take enough time to truly enjoy the day as I should have. Especially in light of some sad news I received two days in a row.

Friday morning I sat down to check email, and the first one I read struck me hard. A very dear friend's husband has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They have only been married a year. He is only 34 years young.

Then on Saturday we went to have dinner with my former dance teacher and his wife, dear friends. We were told that he has prostate cancer and will be having surgery in December.

Needless to say, I most certainly stopped to think about everything that I am so blessed to have. My husband and I recently celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. I am thankful for those 9 years, even if they have not always been perfect. Nothing ever is. If it was, life would probably be pretty boring. I am also thankful that his recent annual tests all came back clear this week.

I am very lucky to have a close knit family. My sister truly is my best friend. I am lucky to be able to talk with them every day, sometimes many times a day. I am also lucky to have my health and am strong and capable. I may have aches and pains and migraine headaches, but that is nothing compared to what others are going through. So when I started to skip out on my workout this morning (legs), I thought about those who don't have the luxury of even being able to workout or knowing that they don't have many more workouts that they can even skip out on. So I pushed on.

I hope that others who might read this will take the time to reflect on all the positives in their lives. Yes, we all have problems and experience snags and snafus in life. The key is to not dwell on those pitfalls, but to remember and be thankful for all the other positives. When you think you can't do something, remember all of those who truly can't, then get up and just do it. You just may surprise yourself!

Love in Photos

In honor of Valentine's Day - Love in Photos Husband Family and Furbabies Friends Even if you're not a fan of Valentine's Day - I hope you have a wonderful day and remember the loves in your life.

Hump Day and More Pineapples

Full-Body Workout I'll readily admit that getting up this morning was quite painful and almost didn't happen. I forced myself out of bed though not exactly excited about tackling a full-body Pyramid workout. Sort of daunting at 5 am really. I did the warm up from Shock Cardio Cardio Core Circuit (cardio only premix) then hit the weights. It was a pyramid up only so I increased my starting weight. I topped it all off with the first 2 1/2 drills from the cardio workout. I ran short on time and was basically spent. Squats into Plie Squats Step Ups (seriously hate these especially at 5:30 am) Incline Chest Flyes into Chest Press Pullovers into DB Underhand Rows Step Ups (freaking again) Static Lunges Overhead DB Press into Lateral Raises Deadlifts Kickbacks into Overhead Extensions Hammer Curls into Alternating Curls Calf Raises I am so excited to report that my new cross-trainers and running shoes arrived today. Can't wait to test both of them out. I waited way way way too

Hitting the Gym and Lazy Means Creative Tex-Mex Creation

Sunday, Gym Day Why do vacations and min-vacations go by so quickly? Just doesn't seem quite right. Anyway, we left Branson around 9:30 am to head back home. It was a pretty uneventful drive back, which is usually a good thing. We got home and unpacked, then I headed up to the gym. I started with a 10-minute treadmill run to warm up before hitting the weights for back and light legs then abs. I went with a giant set for back then supersets for legs. GS - 4x8 Underhand barbell rows Pullovers Double-arm rows SS#1 Rear-leg elevated lunges (Bulgarian Split Squats) - 3x8 Calf raises - 3x20 SS#2 - 2x8 Walking lunges Plie squats with low-end pulse Single-leg deadlifts - 2x8 I did some ab exercises, stretched, and called it quits. Lazy = Crazy Dinner I may have made it to the gym and washed a few loads of laundry, but I never made it to the grocery store - lounging in the pool trumped grocery shopping. This meant getting creative with dinner. We had another package

Where's the Beach?

Search This Blog