Thursday, September 27, 2012

A little BIG update, for ya!

So, people, you'll never believe it! Neither can I!
But I lost all motivation and even desire to accomplish any freezer meal/"food" goals. Haha!

One reason I've been unmotivated is because I've just been a little pooped er tired this last week.
Slightly random and slightly NOT random because....
Yep, you read it right!!!! We are PREGGERS!!!! Hooray!
We are so excited!!
I was nauseated for a week and a half! Not bad, really!
And this week, I'm tired after a few nights of 10+ hours of sleep, which is really unmotivating when it comes to accomplishing GOALS!! oi! :)
We are due April 2, 2013 which makes me 3 months preggers and 13.5 weeks!
Trav's excited.
I'm excited.
and Brynlie thinks she and daddy have babies in their tummies too!!!

So as far as becoming a little more "fabulous," I decided to take the author of Faithful, Fit and Fabulous's advice and use my plan B. My plan B involves not doing ANY freezer related things right now and focusing on smaller steps in another area! haha! I have started organizing a few things and it feels good. Apparently I'm not a professional goal-setter-accomplisher....yet! But I am still moving forward and learning from experiences. What worked last week was do-able chunks and CLEAR set goals for each day. ...And do-able chunks....small chunks wins the race, right!! ;)

See how this closet looks like it's going to eat you!? This is NOT a picture from Google, this is my closet! And this closet needs help!

So this afternoon, this was one of my do-able projects in my plan B. Yay for not giving up!! And it felt so good to DO something! I finished the cleaning out closet project but the details and before and after pics I'll show tomorrow, or just later!

 


The closet better watch out!! Grrrr! :)

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

the Craziness Continues into Week 2!

So despite my lack of little updates of my week 1 progress, I knew that you were all excitedly waiting for my next big post! ;) You were probably as excited as this little girl, right!? And I thank you because it gave me enough motivation and accountability to DO IT!!!!! YAY!!

What did I do exaclty!?

I simply was establishing some holy habits!! In fact, all week long I worked on a seriously huge project and I made some SERIOUS progress!! I had 17 "experiences" and 3 "projects" left to get my Young Womanhood Recognition as a leader. And NOW!!!? Now, I have 6 "experiences" left (and 3 are in the process of finishing) and 3 "projects." So that boils down to 2 hours of personal progress a day, completing at least 2 "experiences" a day! And 11 experience done and checked off my list!! That's A LOT! And I am so excited to have such a huge chunk done. My goal is to finish all the "experiences" and "projects" by November 7th, which is SUPER close!! But I am on my way!!

What worked? How did I accomplish such a huge amount this week? I worked during Brynlie's 1-hour nap, while Trav and Brynlie had some after-work-bonding time, and if I had to then I finished up after Brynlie went to bed. So basically that's what all my free time was spent doing. But it worked because I only had one goal to do this week and again, I knew you were all counting on me to accomplish my first goal!!

 
So what's going on for week 2 of being faithful, fit and fabulous!? Creating a "life paragraph" in order to keep the rest of my goals I choose consistent with my overall long-term goals. And then YES choosing an area to work on! Wahoo! Because this is real-life and my life is a lot like yours where there seems to never be quite enought time, I will hash out and reveal my life paragraph....later!! :) But I will tell you that this week, week 2, I will be conquering FOOD!


I want to create healthy quick go-to LUNCHES and snacks, find and buy some great protien powder, and even begin preparing 2 months worth of freezer meals! I'm excited because currently all my meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) are very spur of the moment, whatever is in the fridge, anything quick to make, and that's not always the healthiest. The 2 months worth of freezer meals will hopefully all be crock-pot meals (mulitply the "easy" factor) and the time given to that project will go towards one of my personal progress projects mentioned above!! YAY!

Mostly for my sake, let me be a little more specific:
Tuesday: Find some fun lunch, snack, and even dinner recipes. Gather, gather, gather!
Wednesday: Prepare some lunch items beforehand (cook rice and freeze). I do better when I don't have to CREATE three healthy meals a day (too much cooking and cleaning), but cook some bulk food items to keep me from grabbing a box of cereal. I'll explain this more in detail Wednesday.
Thursday: Buy some protein powder, and cook and essemble more lunch and dinner items.
Friday: Buy some protein powder (as a plan B if it doesn't happen Thursday), and cook and esseble even more lunch and dinner items. (2 months worth of dinners is a lot to essemble, even three days won't be enough but it's progress)!
Saturday and Monday will probably be the same as Thursday and Friday.

I'm guessing that I'll be updating you a little more this week on my progress, but ya never know because, again, this is real life where there is just never quite enough time! :) Enjoy your happy Tuesday!

Monday, September 17, 2012

establishing holy habits: week 1

It's Monday! Yay! I'm so excited to really get started on this journey to become a little more faithful, fit and fabulous!

The first thing that Connie covers is "establishing holy habits." There are three holy habits: prayer, scriptures, and personal promptings. Referring to these three holy habits, she says, "We know what they are, we know they're effective, and yet we get casual. ...Although we may understand why prayer, scripture study, and personal promptings are essential, sometimes we aren't consistent. Why is that?"

She talks in depth about why we are inconsistent including: busyness, not trusting His promises, changes in routine, distractions, and everything else. She continues to inspire me through her relate-ability and "juicy" ideas to be more consistent with these three holy habits.

So, week 1: choose one goal from these holy habits and do it!!  (Ex: pray from the heart, read scriptures with a question in mind, or keep a promptings journal.)

When I first started 8 weeks ago, I chose a goal to spice up my daily scripture reading. I love the scriptures but it's hard to feel excited about reading ALL the time. I wanted to feel EXCITED to read. So my specific goal was after I read for 15ish minutes, I had to draw a picture to sum up what I read. (He he!) Secretly I love to draw and never really give myself time or a reason to. So this was really fun for me. I noticed how the little extra brain power to turn thoughts into a picture REALLY spiced up my reading and helped me remember what I read! (double “yay”) This lasted three days. Not sure why and I really should randomly do it again, for fun!!

But now that 8 weeks has past, something in Connie's explanation sticks out more than spicing up my scripture reading. She says that this goal during week 1 can be starting a habit OR it can be a one-time project. hmmm...

I'm in Young Women's and as leaders we can also work towards getting a (or another) Young Womanhood Recognition. At the first of the year I challenged myself to get mine this year. It’s September and I have done a third of what I need to. So this last week, I went through what I have left and categorized them into "one-day", "a few days", "two weeks", "three weeks", and a "month," projects. It turns out I have roughly 10 "one day" projects and if I do them all in a week, I can finish the rest of the bigger projects by November 7th, which is YW in excellence where they celebrate the girls but also those who have gotten their recognition!

So that's my goal this week. I want to do all 10 "one day" projects during Brynlie's naps and for my scripture reading. To keep me accountable and to push me to do it even when things get busy, I'm going to drop you a line (...er post) about how each day is going. Something short and sweet. Then at the end of the week, I'll give you my “post-it note” filled with my synopsis (wahoo.) and my new goal for next week!!!

Does this sound like something you want to try for a week too!? I'm mean, not necessarily working on Personal Progress, :) but establishing or spicing up one of these holy habits!!! Do IT!!! When I feel spiritually charged, I feel much more likely to accomplish great things! So if something has caught your eye, do it, do it, do it!!! You won’t be alone!

So here it goes!! AHH!! I'm publishing this and heading off to start my Personal Progress! Such a fitting title to a goal to become more faithful, fit, and fabulous!!! Ha Ha! Love it! 

Have a fabulous Monday! Love the encouragement of productive Mondays!!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Faithful, Fit, & Fabulous!

Hello! I have some amazing ideas for this crazy blog. (eek!) Most of these ideas are fabulous but yet still percolating, so let me tell you about my first and biggest idea for this here blog!

I am on an 8 week journey to become a little more "Faithful, Fit, and Fabulous"!!! Um, ya! It's going to be amazing! Do you know the author Connie E. Sokol? Well she is faithful. She is fit. She is also fabulous! And she wrote a freaking amazing book about how to become all those things! In 8 weeks! She's LDS and her program involves letting Heavenly Father in on all you're doing and allowing HIM to mold you into something a little more faithful, fit, and fabulous!

According to Connie, there are 8 areas we find stress in if those areas are not doing 80% or better. For example, motherhood, finances, relationships, fitness, and organization. But, man, that's a lot of areas to be doing great at, hence why we women can get overwhelmed with all our responsibilities! Therefore, one of Connie's points is something that President Faust once said, "have it sequentially." That is, timing. So she created a program with one goal in all these areas (plus 2 more) one week at a time. She talks about how we could probably handle more than one goal a week, but only for "like 2 weeks" until life happens and you begin to say, "pass the pan of brownies."

She's hilarious and so inspiring! I first discovered her while listening to a program on the Mormon Channel called Everything Creative. She was so awesome that I bought her book on Amazon like the next day! (Which is crazy for me because I have serious issues with spending money on myself....I just feel guilty, ya know!?) But yes, I received it in the mail and started reading immediately. I set my first goal and did it for 3 days, then life happened (sooner than her 2 week alert :)) and I continued to think about it and hope to apply it and then suddenly 8 weeks passed! ha ha! I came to the conclusion that I need a real place to be accountable to.

So that's my first big idea with this blog is reporting on my progress in this 8 week program of faithfulness, fitness, and some serious fabulousness!!! Connie, has "post-it" sheets to fill out each week and that's what I will write on this blog!! If this sounds awesome, stay tuned for Monday (ish) when I'll share what I'll be doing the first week! If half way through, or something like that, you think it's awesome enough to join in, then by all means JOIN IN! Eek! If not, just let me be accountable to you! I need you! Ha Ha!!

Anyone heard of her? She's also a motivational speaker, has anyone had the priviledge off hearing her speak!!?