Category Archives: Exercise

An Afternoon of Living Life!

Good afternoon!!

Before I head out the door to go back to the art studio, Create a Memory, to work some more on my glass fuse project, I thought I would stop and organize my thoughts a little bit, not only for this weekend,but for the week.

As you may have noticed, I have started tracking my food, and sharing my daily eats out here with you for the past two days! In looking at what I have been eating, I realize I need to do a more diligent job of making sure that I have plenty of healthy foods on hand, so that I can do better at avoiding the candy jar at work, and make sure that I am not purchasing food from the work cafeteria. Now, please don’t get me wrong, the food is delicious, BUT I don’t know what is in it, AND when nothing sounds good I get fried chicken strips and fries! DEFINITELY NOT health food!!! I am asking my body to be so much more physical than it has in a while, and I just need to make sure that I am getting it the nutrients it needs so that it can stay powered up for me to keep going!! AND for every pound I move, all movement is just going to get easier and easier, and I will be able to lesson my knee, ankle and foot pain!!! So, I don’t know if you just heard the Rocky sound track going on in my head, but it just did and it is BLARING!! 🙂 It is reminding me to get out there and MAKE it happen!! Anyone have any chickens I can chase??? 😉

So, today, I need to create our week’s menu for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and all snacks, then I am heading over to Create a Memory and I will be over there for a few hours, working on my glass project. Next I will head over to the grocery store and pick up needed groceries to meet our menu’s needs, and then I am going to come back put it all way, and make my way over to our pool!! I haven’t dipped in a couple of weeks, and that is my second FAVORITE workout, second to belly dancing, of course!!! (Walking is my third favorite, just in case you were wondering, and biking is fourth!!)

Also, I want to make sure that I share this quote that I found this morning, as I was doing some early morning reading,

“Chance is always powerful.
Let your hook be always cast;
in the pool where you least expect it,
there will be a fish.”
~Ovid

This quote really seemed to be fitting as I am out there trying to feel my way to my art medium, and it reminded me to keep looking. Even if you think that something is not what you want, try it anyway, you just might find that it is EXACTLY what you have been looking for!! POIGNANT!!

Anyway, I will try and post again this evening!!! My day is not complete unless I am able to get a post out at least once a day, but I prefer twice!! not only to stay in touch with you, but to stay in touch with myself too!! I am learning that that is VERY IMPORTANT!!!

Have a FABULOUS afternoon!!

Belly Dancing Night!

Good evening!

I’m here! I’m here! I am sorry, I had forgotten that my e-mail account was hacked into a couple of days ago and it broke my connection to my Blackberry, so I wasn’t able to blog today like I had wanted to. To make it up to you, I will make this one a little long to tell you about all the things going on with my day!!

I did not get a post up this morning, I was running around like a buzy bee trying to get out the door in time this morning! I am not sure why but time seemed to pass really quickly, and before I new it, I had my flat iron in my hand and it was 7:30! AAAACK!!! 10 minutes AFTER I normally leave for the office!!!

Then by lunch time, my day had completely flipped, and was now going SOOOOOOOOOOOO VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY SLOOOOOOOOOOOWLY!! I almost couldn’t stand it!!! 😉 I was soooo jazzed about my belly dancing class tonight – I just wanted to get out there and get to it!! It was supposed to be veil night!

 VEIL NIGHT!!!

WHOO! HOO!!

I mean, come on! What little girl didn’t dream about playing dress up and being a little Indian Girl layered in veils, dancing beautifully, while being adored by her audience??? No? Not you?? Oh, so it was just me then?? Oh. Ok. Man I am so wanting to learn how to do an actual dance, and I realize we are learning all of the kinds of moves you can do so that way when you do put dances together you know what you are doing – BUT, PUT ME IN COACH!! I AM SOOOO READY TO PLAY!!! 😉

My co-workers were SUPER UNDERSTANDING this afternoon, seeing that even the boss wasn’t too into the idea of getting any work done, so they spent a little time talking about all of their plants that are coming up in their vegetable gardens, and I was soooo jealous!! I want a garden too, but that is kind of difficult when you live in a condo. However, they gave me all sorts of ideas on how to grow plants in my own container gardens, or even in small greenhouses that I can use year round! Isn’t that just DIVINE??? Really! I am so inspired! and you HAVE TO KNOW, my hubbie would just LOVE that!!! I can’t wait to tell him all about it!!

After work tonight, I started my artist date with myself and did a lot of walking around downtown, going from craft place to craft place looking for art or craft classes that I could take, and I have to tell you I found quite a bit of them that I am going to look further into. One is an encaustic painting class. I had seen an artist doing that on a craft program some years back and it has always intrigued me, so I put it on my life list! It is the one about painting with wax – that is was encaustic painting it. I also found a quilting class I want to take and a collage class that I am going to take!! They all sounds REALLY FUN and EXCITING! and I am sure they will be, but what I am most excited about is a class that I have signed Jason and I up for tomorrow!! We are going to be taking a glass fusing class at one of our local art studios here in Salem. This is going to be a first for both of us, and I JUST KNOW we are going to have A BLAST!! My co-worker was just SHOCKED that Jason agreed to do this for our date night, but he WAS TOTALLY GAME!!! Jason has a bit of an artistic streak running through him too!! I told you we were MFEO!!! (Made For Each Other!!)

We will do all of our glass cutting/designing/assembling tomorrow evening, and then the studio will kiln fire it for us, and we will pick it up in 7 days! I hope they turn out looking FABULOUS!!! I can’t wait to share pictures!!!

Oh, talking about pictures! I spoke to my belly dancing class mates tonight, and besides myself, the vote for me taking pictures of the class was a RESOUNDING HELL NO!!!

BUMMER!!

I was shocked (doesn’t EVERYONE put there life out on the internet for public perusal??? LOL!), and a little bummed (boo! hiss!), but I will respect the wishes of the class, and refrain from taking , for now! HOWEVER, if we should ever perform, you had better believe that I am going to task Jason to take as many pictures as he is able to, and HONEY I AM SHARING THEM ALL WITH YOU!!! 😉

So, I will be taking pictures of our glass class tomorrow! (I hope that is alright???) and I will share them with you tomorrow! They should be GREAT!!! Until then…

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

NOTE TO CHUNKY DUNKERS: I did 1/2 an hour of walking downtown, and an hour belly dancing class today! I at a strawberry smoothie for breakfast, a small whole wheat english muffin ham sandwich for snack, mini-bite Crunch candy bar, baked carrots, a baked potato with sour cream, and some baked turkey for lunch, a large chocolate chip cookie in the afternoon, and then I had a super healthy chicken, veggies, and rice for dinner! Looking at this, I can see that there is a lot of room for improvement, so I will be conscious and try to do better tomorrow! GO CHUNKY DUNKERS!!!

The Chunky Dunker’s Club, Week 9

Good evening!

Welcome to week 9, of the Chunky Dunker’s Club!! Welcome back to those who join us every week, including those of your who silently follow us, and welcome to those who may be new to my blog this evening.

Every week I post a new Chunky Dunker’s article ever Wednesday evening, and you have the opportunity to comment, and cheer each other as you each go through your journey to get fit and healthy!!! We will discuss hints, tips, and ideas on losing weight, staying motivated, and achieving your fitness goals, whether that is to lose 5 pounds, to do 10 sit-ups, or just incorporate some healthy habits into your daily life!!

Last week we talked about visualizing your fit, healthy, and vivaciously energetic, most perfect self. This is still one of my favorite exercises because all it takes is closing your eyes, holding still and visualizing yourself as that person. Did you notice anything in yourself that would need to stop or start doing to get to that person in your mind??? I know I did, and still do.

Tonight’s topic: Hitting a Plateau

I am not sure about any of you, but have any of you hit a plateau in your fitness/weight loss goals? I really have!!! I am not sure if it is my lack of motivation, lack of face-to-face support, or if I have just have myself too busy learning to tap back into my creative self, or it could be that I am just sore! Besides my belly dancing class once a week, I really haven’t done much in the way of exercising! BOO! HISS!! I know!! I can’t believe it either!!!

AREN’T I SUPPOSED TO BE OUR SUPPORT GROUP LEADER???
AAAACK!!

Ok, that might be a little melodramatic, I know that I am human just like all of you are too! So, instead of kicking my booty about it, I am hopping back on the bandwagon! I am making my fitness a priority, and I have got to start making healthy eating more of a priority – although I have to say that most of my fruits and vegetables are now organic, so that has got to count for something, I think!?!?! 😉

So, I recommit!

Here is my contract with

you,

but even more importantly, my contract with

myself!

I, Christina, hereby solemnly swear to move my body with some kind of an aerobic activity for at least 1/2 an hour every day.

I, Christina, also vow to make sure that I carry a small journal with me at all times so that I can write down whatever I eat or drink, no matter how horrific or terrifying my food choice is at the time. I will not berate myself for what I write, but will use the log as a learning tool to do better next week.

I, Christina, will treat myself nicely, gently, and lovingly, as if I were my own best friend. I will keep an eye on my self-talk to make sure that I remind myself that I am happy, I am blessed, and I am healthy, because I deserve it.

I, Christina, will remember that this process is a journey, and not a destination; that once I hit my ideal weight/size, that life doesn’t stop there. This is about living and loving life to it’s fullest, and looking for ways that I can be a blessing to those around me every day!

Signed & Dated this Wednesday, April 27, 2011, at 6:00 pm.

Do you need to make a contract with yourself?? If so, that is your homework!!

GO CHUNKY DUNKER’S!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Creative Affirmations!

Good evening!

I know I have already posted my blog tonight, but I am going through my Artist’s Way Chapter for the week, and I realized there are a couple of thoughts that I may want to call upon later during this week, and maybe longer. So, I had thought, seeing that this is my online journal, I would share them here so I may refer back to them!

Taken from Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist Way, pgs 37-37

Creative Affirmations:

  1. I am a channel of God’s creativity, and my work comes to good.
  2. My dreams come from God and God has the power to accomplish them.
  3. As I create and listen, I will be lead.
  4. Creativity is the creator’s will for me.
  5. My creativity heals myself and others.
  6. I am allowed to nurture my artist.
  7. Through the use of a few simple tools, my creativity will flourish.
  8. Through the use of my creativity, I serve God.
  9. My creativity always leads me to truth and love.
  10. My creativity leads me to forgiveness and self-forgiveness.
  11. There is a divine plan of goodness for me.
  12. There is a divine plan of goodness for my work.
  13. As I listen to the creator within, I am led.
  14. As I listen to my creativity I am lead to my creator.
  15. I am willing to create.
  16. I am willing to learn to let myself create.
  17. I am willing to let God create through me.
  18. I am willing to be of service through my creativity.
  19. I am willing to experience my creative energy.
  20. I am willing to use my creative talents.

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Groovin’ to the Music!

Good morning!!

I can’t help groovin’ to the music playing throughout the house this morning!! Belly dancing has infiltrated my soul!!! SO MUCH FUN!! and really any song that has a strong 4/4 beat can be belly danced too! I am sure my sweetie thinks I have lost my blessed mind!!! LOL!!

Tonight is date night in our household!! YEAH!!! I LOVE DATE NIGHTS!!! Tonight Jason is taking me to dinner and a movie – although I may talk him into doing dinner, and a walk around River Front Park, or bowling, or miniature golf, or just strolling around downtown – I haven’t decided yet! I just want to do something that would be fun for both of us, but keeps us off of our booties!!!

One thing I will need to make sure that happens, is that Jason gets some walking shoes! He doesn’t have any decent ones, so going anywhere or doing anything that requires a bunch of walking is really uncomfortable for him – so I will have to help him look into that!!! He is now wearing a size 18, so you can imagine how difficult it can be to find ANY shoes in his size!!! UGH! We usually go up to the Nike outlet store where they have the reject shoes from the Portland Blazers. Sometimes those really work out, but USUALLY we find all sorts of CRAZY colored shoes, and I don’t care how hot my hubby is – and he is pretty hot, but NO MAN LOOKS GOOD WALKING AROUND IN BRIGHT ORANGE HIGH TOPS!!! No thank you!!! 😉 HAHAHA!!!

It looks like it is going to be another nice sunny day here in good ol’ Oregon, so I am VERY excited about that! I have charged one of my camera batteries, so now I am ready to go out and take a bunch of pictures! I am working on getting my old “Style File” on my PC that is filled with other peoples’ artwork, and creating a new Style File with all of my OWN artwork!!! That way I will have a wealth of pictures to use for posting on my blog! Oh, the idea of that just gives me shivers of JOY!! YEAH!!!

Anyway, I have got to zip out the door to get to the office! I am planning on treating myself to only working a half day and then getting outside to go enjoy this BEAUTIFUL weather before my date this evening with my love!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS day!!

The End of My Creative Day!

Good evening!

Thursdays have become my FAVORITE day of the week!! I am SOOOO IN LOVE with belly dancing!!! Each week the moves I had learned the previous weeks get easier and easier and the new moves we learn each night are just challenging enough to make the class fun!!

I know I must sound like a broken record, but I am telling you there is something so AMAZINGLY EMPOWERING about teaching your body to do moves it had never known it could do before. Being in a 300 + pound body, you reach a certain level of acceptence that there are some physical things in life that are just not for you!

WHAT A CROCK OF CRAP!!!

WHO DOLES OUT THAT MISINFORMATION?!?!?!?


NO, I am not a slim chicky! No, getting my junk to jiggle isn’t as difficult as it is for the other girls in the class (Hah!!!), but am getting out there and getting my groove on, having a blast, and feeling FABULOUS for all of my efforts!! I will never need anti-depression medication if I just belly dance with friends! It is THE ULTIMATE mood lifter!!!

Tonight I was also very excited to go out and be a photographer for the evening. The first and most important rule of being a photographer, I have learned this evening is…

MAKE SURE YOUR BLINKIN’ BATTERY IS CHARGED!!!

UGH!!

:-

Not only was my battery dead, but so was my back up! How is that for well prepared??? LOL!! I did manage to get a few pics in, but I was heartsick, when at the end of our class this evening, the more advanced class did an impromptu dance for us! It was beautiful, and sensual, and awe-inspiring! and unfortunately, my camera was dead! DAMN!! One of the advanced dancers even had this UNBELIEVABLE henna tattoo up one side of her abdomen!! It was STUNNING!!! I will have to do that when I get brave enough to perform, which I will do, just for the record!!! LOL!!! 😉

All of the pics that are posted throughout this blog tonight, are pics of the dance studio’s bathroom! It was tres chic, and I didn’t feel like I had to chicken out to take pictures in there!! HAHAHA!! I know, I can be such a Dork with a capital D!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Please note: To those of you whose pictures I have ever used on this blog without permission, or without giving credit where credit was due, I apologize! I have been naive, but am naive no longer. I am vowing to use my own photographs from now on, or to make sure that all pics that are not mine, will be credited to their rightful owners. It is what I would want from others, and it is the right thing to do.

The Chunky Dunker’s Club, Week 8

Good evening!

Welcome to week 8, of the Chunky Dunker’s Club!! At some point I am going to just have to call these posts “Chunky Dunker’s Club” and take off the week number, but I am very excited, and proud of us to have made it to week number 8!!! Can you believe it???

Every week I post a new Chunky Dunker’s article ever Wednesday evening, and you have the opportunity to comment, and cheer each other as you each go through your journey to get fit and healthy!!! We will discuss hints, tips, and ideas on losing weight, staying motivated, and achieving your fitness goals, whether that is to lose 5 pounds, to do 10 sit-ups, or just incorporate some healthy habits into your daily life!!

Did you attempt your homework from last week?

LAST WEEK’S HOMEWORK: Write down 5 choices you make every day, and what pain you are trying to avoid, and what pleasure you are trying to gain from each choice. Look at your answers, if you were to change you pain/pleasure that you associate with these choices would your physical life improve. Underneath each choice, write what the reality of what you are doing here – this might be eye-opening for you.

How did that go? It wasn’t as easy as you thought it was going to be was it??

Well, I am excited to hear how everyone is doing with their own personal fitness goals this week, but before we jump to the comments section to chat, let’s discuss tonight’s topic!

Tonight’s topic: Visualizing Your Best YOU!!!

Myself, being a very visual person, this is one of my FAVORITE get fit exercises!! And there is ABSOLUTELY no sweating, pain, and you can do this dressed exactly as you are – or not, whatever the case may be, for my possible nudist readers!!! 😉

Visualization!!!

Try closing your eyes and see if you can envision yourself at your perfect fitness level. Don’t envision yourself from sometime in the past, but envision yourself fit, healthy, and vivaciously energetic right this minute.

What do you look like?
What are you doing?
What are you wearing?
Where are you?
Who are you with?
Are you doing something different then what you are doing now?
Hmmmmm…very curious, don’t you think???

In doing this type of exercise, you are tricking your brain into thinking that what you are seeing in your mind’s eye is actually your reality. Have you ever stopped to think that reality is all about perception anyways??? My reality is not the same as yours, and yours may not be the same as the next person – but YOU are still the one HAVING TO LIVE IN IT!!! Why not make your reality one filled with a YOU who is living fit and healthy???

TONIGHT’S HOMEWORK: Try visualizing your most fabulously fit and perfect self in your mind. Make your picture as clear, crisp, and as colorful as possible. For the rest of this week, bring this picture to the forefront of your mind when you have any moment of quiet. Work on fine-tuning your vision, tweak your hair, your smile, your boobs (come on ladies, I know you are thinking it!!) your posture, your speed, your stamina, your strength, your flexibility – ANYTHING YOU WANT!!! I think you get the picture THIS IS YOUR LIFE AND YOUR REALITY!!!

Life is not about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself!

If you need help with this, find healthy, realistic from magazines, or news articles, or heck draw one yourself!! If your mind can see and believe, it can achieve.

I fully believe that!!!
Get out there and get visualizing!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

It’s Friday! Friday! Friday!!

Good morning, you FABULOUS people!!

I am in a really good place right now, and I can’t help but share some of that newly found joy with you!!! I have to confess, after my hour of morning pages, I started to get ready for work, and found myself doing some belly dancing to Rhianna!!! She has got such a GREAT beat in her music, it was fun!!

I am getting ready to head to work for the day, but I am hoping to get off a little bit early today, I do have a couple of errands that I want to run, and then I am thinking that my sweetie and I will go play in the pool for a while!!! Oh it is fun to be a kid again!!! 😉

I was telling my sis last night, that it I am just LOVING having activities in my life that I LOVE to do!! That is the key to happiness!! Oh, and having people to share those activities with!!! 😉

I am trying to decide what creative activity I would like to do this weekend. I am meeting Dawn in the morning for coffee downtown, so I am thinking that I am going to take my knitting, with extras (yarn and knitting needles) in case anyone would like to join me, and then people watch while visiting with Dawn!! Doesn’t that just sound delicious????

I am also needing to do some some serious kitchen overhauling and make a trip to the health food store to get some NEW groceries for our place. I have a restaurant that I just discovered last night that I want to tell you all about, but I don’t have time to get the pics ready before work today, so I  will post those pics and tell you all about my NEW FAVORITE RESTAURANT downtown!! In the meantime, I will tell you that the new restaurant has really inspired me to incorporate more FRESHNESS into my meals, raw vegetables are our friends!! LOL!! Hence the need to go to the Health Food store!! PRODUCE RUN!!! 😉

Anyway, I am off!!

Have a FABULOUS day!!! 😉

Note to Chunky Dunkers: I have not forgotten about you, my lovelies!!! Keep up the hard work, it will be SOOOO WORTH IT!!! GO CHUNKY DUNKERS!!! 😉

My Mind-Body-Spirit Connection – Literally!!

Good evening!

Ok, so where to begin?? Well, tonight was week 2 of my belly dancing class! I am soooooo LOVING this class!! If I didn’t hurt so badly after one, I could do this EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!!! I also have decided that I think it should be made a pre-requisite for any girl wanting to graduate from high school so that she is comfortable in her own skin. SERIOUSLY!!! 😉

I had a HUGE Ah-Ha moment this evening!! I have always known that I have had a mind, a body, and a spirit, but I have always treated them as separate entities! I learn to be smart, I talk to God to be spiritural, and I exercise to be physical. I realized that might just be exactly what my problem has been all along. I have literally created this disconnect between these three areas of myself and I have never made the connection that they each are effected and are dependent on each other.

Was this a lesson I missed in school??

Was I sick the day that this was taught in church??

Was this a day when I was too busy to listen to my mother??

Why haven’t I ever realized this before????

I have always been a heavy person, so I had come to the conclusion that I am never going to be a truly physical person because I have no control over my body.

The Ah-Ha moment was when I realized this was BS!

I am learning that practicing belly dancing shows you that through action, and practice you can make your body do things that you NEVER thought it could do previously!! The instant the instructor said,

“You can not think to do the move, you have to just let it happen.”

“What? That doesn’t make any sense”, my mind said to my body.
“Try it anyway!”, my spirit said!!

and the next thing I know, I am doing the move, at least the reflection of myself is doing the move, so I am assuming that person dressed like me, sweating like me, panting like me, is me!!

LIGHTBULB!!! YES, I CAN DO THESE MOVES!!

YES! I CAN BE A PHYSICAL PERSON!!!

But even more than that, my mind, and body, and spirit are all connected. They are not independent of each other! and if I am willing to put into practice actions that will challenge each of these three areas, they will rise to the occasion and things that I thought would never actually could happen, will happen. Now I think I understand what the Bible means when it says that men (or women) can move mountains!!

Am I the last one to have learned this lesson??? I sure hope not! I just can’t believe that I can do these moves!!!

I will tell you more about my day, tomorrow!! I even have pictures to post!!! but this girl has got to take her tired body, mind, and spirit to bed!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

The Chunky Dunker’s Club, Week 7

Good evening!

Welcome to week 7, of the Chunky Dunker’s Club!! Where does all of the time seem to go??

Every week I post a new Chunky Dunker’s article ever Wednesday evening, and you have the opportunity to comment, and cheer each other as you each go through your journey to get fit and healthy!!! We will discuss hints, tips, and ideas on losing weight, staying motivated, and achieving your fitness goals, whether that is to lose 5 pounds, to do 10 sit-ups, or just incorporate some healthy habits into your daily life!!

Tonight’s topic: Emotional Eating!

I am not sure about you, but I sure am guilty for eating, not because I am hungry, but because I am needing something emotionally. For example, I got home from a not so pleasant day at work not to long ago, and went right to the cupboards and ate two cookies. With nary a thought about, why I was eating those cookies. Was I hungry? What was I really needing? Were those cookies going to satisfy whatever those needs were?? Uhm…no, no, and no!!

What I am learning, as I go through this get fit journey with you, is that sometimes to have any kind of success, you first have to figure out why you do what it is that you are doing. It is all about pain and pleasure.

I believe there are two kinds of forces in this world that sway you to make a decision either one way or the other. Pain and Pleasure. What pain are you trying to avoid, and what pleasure are you trying to gain? Think about it, I ate the cookies because I was trying to avoid the pain of having to deal with my day, and to gain the pleasure of tasting some really yummy cookies.

How else do we use pain and pleasure in our get fit choices?

I am not going to get up to exercise because I want to avoid the pain of having to get out of bed early, and gain the pleasure of sleeping for an extra hour. I am convinced that this pain/pleasure principal applies to EVERY CHOICE WE MAKE!!!

HOMEWORK: Write down 5 choices you make every day, and what pain you are trying to avoid, and what pleasure you are trying to gain from each choice. Look at your answers, if you were to change you pain/pleasure that you associate with these choices would your physical life improve.

Underneath each choice, write what the reality of what you are doing here – this might be eye-opening for you.

For me, my homework would look something like:

Choice #1: I let Jason make my breakfast, snack, lunch and dinners, and whatever he makes I’ll eat
Pain I Am Avoiding: Having to take time out of my busy day to plan and do the work for this myself
Pleasure I am Gaining: It feels so good to have someone do all of this for me. I feel spoiled!! 😉
Reality: I don’t think it is wrong to have Jason help me in this way, but ultimately I have to be the one to be responsible for what I put into my mouth. I need to speak up and let him know what I want in my lunch box, so he doesn’t always have to guess, or over pack my lunch box.

Choice #2: I choose not to take time out of my work day and go exercise like most of my co-workers.
Pain I Am Avoiding: I am avoiding looking silly, sweating, or getting sore
Pleasure I am Gaining: I think that I can spend that hour a day doing more work at my desk
Reality: I think the reality is that the longer I sit at my desk, the slower my metabolism is going to get, the more weight I am going to gain and in 10 years, when I have all sorts of weight related sicknesses, I am going to look back and say, “why I didn’t I do something about my health when I could have?”.

Choice #3: Watching more than an hour of television every evening
Pain I Am Avoiding: Having to deal with chores that need to be done, or having to deal with negative emotions the might have emerged from my day
Pleasure I am Gaining: I get to zone out, and just stop thinking for myself
Reality: I spend more time watching other people “Live” than I actually do living myself. These people on television are not my friends, they don’t know who I am, they are not even real! Sheesh!

Choice #4: I choose not to get out of the house of the evening and go walking, or swimming with Jason
Pain I Am Avoiding: It feels like too much work
Pleasure I am Gaining: I make excuses for myself to not have to go out, “I have earned” being a lazy hermit somehow. So it is almost a sense of entitlement, plus I just LOVE being home.
Reality: I am really missing a great opportunity to not only increase my physical fitness, but to also spend some quality time with Jason. Realizing that makes me sad.

Choice #5: Not getting to bed early enough that I get at least 8 hours of sleep every night
Pain I Am Avoiding: I have this weird feeling that if I go to bed early then I will either “miss something”, or I will just have to wake up sooner to go back to work again
Pleasure I am Gaining: Uhmmm…getting to do one last chore, or cross off one last thing off of my to-do list
Reality: Who am I kidding?? This just makes me more tired, and irritable the next day, and it gets progressively worse until I get myself some sleep – that is not helping anyone!!!

What would your choices look like? Let me know in the comments above!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉