Category Archives: Goals

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.

A Creative Day!

A lovely pic taken & sent to me, by my sis, Alex!! 😉

Good morning!

I have just gotten into the office and am getting ready to start my working day! The sun is shining and my entire desk is just glowing in the sun – I LOVE IT!!! It is such a different feeling then being here when it is grey, rainy, and cloudy! However, I am not complaining! I am just soooooo thankful to have such a nice large window to be able to see out of!!! BLISS!!

Tonight is my belly dancing class, and I have decided to leave the office about 1/2 an hour early today so that I can go accomplish one of my weekly assignments for the book I am reading, ‘The Artist’s Way’. The assignment is, is that I am supposed to choose 5 creative careers other than the career I am doing, and then choose to act out one of those careers in your life sometime this week! Well, today is that day!!

My 5 Creative Careers for me are:

1.     Professional Blogger
2.     Photographer
3.     Writer/Author
4.     Home Boutique Owner
5.     Magazine Editor

Actually, that last one is brand new! Magazine editor just popped into my head, and had to bump off another career choice off of my list, which was Fashion Designer.

I have decided that if there is a way to do it, I would love to blog full time! One of the things I keep stumbling across is that your blog should have a niche, and I am not sure if up to now it has actually had one. So, if I had to choose a niche – it would still have to remain kind of general, because I have soooo many interests, but I would like to think that my blog would be about living – more specifically finding joy and satisfaction in living your life while honoring your authentic self. For me that would mean, sharing my life with you, my readers, and giving hints, tips, advice, and how-to’s for all sorts of things that I have and am learning along the way.

Is that a niche??

Hmmmm…I am not sure!

It doesn’t matter, I am becoming a fast and firm believer of start where you are, with what you’ve got, learn along the way, and before you know it you will be where you always knew you wanted to be!!! My belly dance instructor keeps saying, “Stop thinking so hard, get out of your own way, you are doing the actions, so just let them happen!”

This maybe should be my life’s motto!?!? 😉

So I am getting out of my own way, and I am blogging every day now, as most of you know, but today, I am going to get out into this sunshine and start playing photographer. I am not going to judge my work, I am just going to get the shots into the camera and share them with the universe!!! and I am just going to see what happens!!

Have a FABULOUS morning!!! 😉
~Christina

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!!

Catch-Up Tuesday!

Good evening!

I have to tell you that today has been such a very good day!! REALLY!!! The sun is shining, Chris and I have help at work now, which is DIVINE!!! Plus Julie really is VERY SWEET, so she has been a joyful addition to our team!!

I am sorry that my posts have been a little sparse the past two days! I had gotten caught up in a book – yes, I still do read, EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE!! I just finished reading  City of Fallen Angels, by Cassandra Claire, with my girlfriend, and co-worker Chris. She had finished it before me, which meant I HAD TO GET IT READ so that we could discuss!! WHEW!! So that is what I have been busy doing.

Ok, I got the last few pages read right before bed last evening! and can I tell you???

WHAT A HORRIBLE ENDING!!!

There is a movie that came out in 1982 that my mom used to watch A LOT when I was a little girl, it was called The Pirate Movie. Well, at the end of that movie, the main character, Mabel, who had been having a pirate dream for the length of the movie, realized she was getting a bad ending. She start calling out, “I want a happy ending! I want a happy ending!!” and the dream froze and, long story short – she got her happy ending!! Well,

I WANT A HAPPY ENDING!! I WANT A HAPPY ENDING!!!

For those of you who haven’t read City of Fallen Angels yet, Chris and I are both sooooo dang frustrated that we have to wait probably another year before we get to find out WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!! UGH!!!

What is a girl to do??

Hmmm… I could always start another book???

😉

As I said earlier in this post, it is so nice and sunny here today – the first real feeling day of Spring!! FINALLY! This cheery, warm weather has started me dreaming about my farm again!! I am so ready to go out and find my farm! Today would be the most DELIGHTFUL day to go out and play in the gardens, take a nice leisurely walk, and spend some time laughing with my sweetie in the great outdoors!!

My sweetie is out working on a roof for a customer, and so I am home alone for dinner. I had a pretty big lunch today, so I have decided to do a light fruit and veggie based dinner tonight – kind of like a mini cleanse!! I have had a lovely pear, a nice crisp apple, and some freshly sliced strawberries!! Later, when/if I get hungry again, I have the makings of a fresh, crisp, green salad, which should be DELICIOUS!! if I get really hungry, we have some fresh baguette in the kitchen too, that I can tear a chunk off of!! Or maybe I can add about an ounce of cheese to the mix, for some calcium-rich protein! YUM! We’ll see! (NOTE: this is my attempt to live spontaneously! WILD? I KNOW!!!!)

I have decided to start buying only organic produce. It is more expensive, but I think in the long run, it can only help us by not consuming quite as many chemicals as we have eaten in the past! So, we have been eating organic produce for a few days now, and I have to tell you, that I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of a lot of these foods. They just taste better. More flavor, richer, somehow!! It has been less than a week, and I am already hooked!! Go figure!! Thanks for the words of encouragement, Sis!!! 😉

Tonight, I am going to do a little more reading, but I think I am also going to go take a nice walk out in nature, and just soak up as much vitamin D as I possibly can!!! Doesn’t that just sound lovely???

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

Note to Chunky Dunkers: I can’t wait to see all of you at our Chunky Dunker’s Club, here tomorrow night!!! It will be great to talk about our ups and downs in our efforts to getting fit and healthy!! If anyone would like to join us – I should have the night’s post published by 6:30 PM! The more the merrier! GO CHUNKY DUNKERS!!! 😉

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 Error of Forgetting to Day Dream!

Good afternoon!

I have stumbled across this article on MSNB.com. The article is called “Eat, drink, pee: Basic life functions we screw up”. I pulled out one piece that I thought would be a great reminder to me, and maybe to you too. I hadn’t realized this but we make a mistake in our daily lives, and that is that we forget to daydream.

Here is what this article has to say about this:

Your second mistake: Forgetting to daydream

What you’re doing wrong: “We spend most of our time in this brain state called the beta brain wave, which is associated with our logical thinking but it’s not a very inspirational state,” says Hansen. Daydreaming puts you into an alpha state where you are much more capable of creativity and inspiration. This is the feel-good state you’re in when you just wake up or fall asleep. It’s the same state a person reaches during meditation.

Health fallout: If you never daydream, zone out or chill long enough to enjoy this state, you never fully recharge, become inspired or have creative ideas. The alpha state can not only improve your emotions, but it can also improve your physical health. There are studies in the works that show reaching the alpha state through meditation specifically might lower the risk of both heart attack and cancer.

The fix: How much do you need to daydream? Experts say it’s hard to gauge but try to make time for a little alpha- recharging several times a day. Take 10 minutes to zone out and reflect on nothing in particular, focus on a fantasy like you won the lottery or landed your dream job, or try a mini-meditation.

To the read the whole article you can go to the article on MSNB.com called Eat, drink, pee: Basic life functions we screw up (

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42459282/ns/health-behavior/)

Have a FABULOUS afternoon!!
~Christina 😉

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!! 😉

Hi, Honey! I’m Home!

Good evening!

I have just gotten home from work, and man did I have a rough day!! Nothing in particular, but there is just a lot of work coming at us, and not quite enough of us to get it all done yet. I am so excited that Julie starts on Monday, even though part-time, I can’t wait!! She will be a breathe of fresh air for our team! Aaaah!

Anyway, there are so many changes going on at work right now, I have decided to pull out my copy of the book, “Who Moved My Cheese?”. Have any of you read that book before? This is a book that I pull out occasionally when I am feeling a little unsure of what the future holds!! I am not sure if my cheese is going to be moved, but let’s just say that I am getting my running shoes on and getting prepared. I know my cheese is out there, I just have to go find it!!!

It is Tuesday, which means it is my turn to cook tonight, and I have TOTALLY FORGOTTEN!! So, I gave my husband my leftover lunch, and I think I will have a bowl of cereal! Not the dinner of champions, but there you go!! Actually I may try and get it together enough to maybe make myself a healthy breakfast burrito! Ok, that sounds good!! I hope my meager lunch fixings will tide my Sweetie over until dinner is made! 😉

I have not been sleeping well, I am not sure why. I have been getting to bed earlier and earlier, but I seem to just toss and turn all night, and last night, I sat awake in bed for about an hour and a half, which kind of negates the reason for going to bed early in the first place, don’t you think??? 😉 So, I am going to take myself to bed a little bit early tonight, and then try and get some reading done before it is actually time to go to sleep. I will see if that gets me through the night. I am also thinking about possibly taking a melatonin. I hear that is a chemical that is a normally occurring drug your brain releases, maybe that will work. Has anyone used melatonin before? I have had success taking it before, but it has been so long that I have forgotten if I stay asleep all night, or if I have any problems getting out of bed in the morning! Anyone else have those problems??

Alright, so I do seem to be rambling a bit this evening, so I am going to get on the ball, and go make us some dinner – that is unless I can sweetly talk my honey into doing it for us tonight, which would be AWESOME!!! 😉 UPDATE: my sweetie has agreed to make dinner!!! YEAH!!! He gets to claim so buck-o brownie points tonight!!! Won’t he be pleased about that???

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Note to Chunky Dunkers: Don’t forget that tomorrow night is Chunky Dunker’s Club Night!! I hope that all of you can be there! It is ALWAYS so much fun when we have a full house!! It is in’t too late to get some extra exercise in, or plan on eating a couple of healthy meals before we meet tomorrow!!! I can’t wait to see you there!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!! 😉

The Great Croissant Bake!!

Good evening!

My sweetie and I have just finished enjoying a few of the lovely croissants that I have made today! I paired them with some sugar free strawberry preserves as a nice dessert to go with an early grilled dinner. This picture is actually a picture of my end results. They really did turn out much better than I could have hope for.

That is one more thing crossed off of My Life List!! YEAH!!

These croissants were flaky, buttery, and delicious! They were quite time consuming and I made quite a mess in the kitchen making these, but I could definitely see doing these again for a special holiday like Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. I am still a firm believer that I don’t like baking – I am not sure I have the patience for it, but I am very thankful that I had taken the time and energy to make these!! 😉

I have spent part of the evening watching the British mini series Daniel Deronda. It is such a great movie, and Daniel Deronda is simply a charming gentleman!! Great story. I am on episode 3 of 4, I can’t wait to see how it ends.

I really don’t have any extravagant plans for this evening. I think I going to spend some quality time with my sweetie this evening, and we may still yet go swimming, which will be fun. Other than that, I am going to enjoy a quiet evening doing some reading and getting ready for another work week. 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉