The Hot 100 is BACK!

You remember the Hot 100! 
Check it.

The home of the HOT 100

Now it's time to select a couple goals for the last 100 days of the year. What ever shall they be?

1. Lose 15lbs (that's 1lb per week starting now). Totally doable but still challenging.
• But isn't this blog suppose to be about the action and not the scale?
• Um....yes. But after doing a little thinking, I've decided that it doesn't hurt to have a weight loss goal. And to be totally honest with you, I don't particularly care much if I reach it or not. Just having it there as something to shoot for makes me happy and keeps me motivated. The trick for me is to balance between slacking off and going buck wild balls-to-the-wall crazy to achieve a number goal. Hint: stand in the middle of the teeter-totter. Ta-Daaaaa.
• So here are my actions:
1. Drink 60oz of water every day
2. Work out 5 days per week (2 days/week dedicated to the activity of the month)
3. Meal plan every week
4. Track food and exercise every day
5. Sleep 8hrs every night
6. Journal every day
7. Make responsible food choices every day except for my "free days"
• 9/25 - Oktoberfest (beer and brauts)
• 10/9 - Greek cooking day with Accountabilibuddy (spanikopita and baklava)
• 11/25 - Thanksgiving
• 11/26 - Thanksgiving leftovers, my favorite
• 12/25 - Christmas Day
• 12/31 - New Years Eve
2. Write 3 blogs every week. Monday check ins, What-if Wednesdays, Fitness Fear Fridays.
3. Work on my book every week

Note - I refer to free days above and would like to clarify what I mean by that. Every year, for whatever reason, people tend to throw their healthy behaviors out the window because they ate a pumpkin pie by themselves at one holiday celebration then proceed to beat themselves up for "failing" which creates the vicious cycle of sabotage and self-punishment. No bueno. So, last year, Accountabilibuddy and I made a list of the days we would allow ourselves some freedom so we could enjoy our holiday celebrations guilt free. If there are 100 days left in the year and I make healthy choices for 94 of those days, I'd say I'm doing well. Giving myself permission to enjoy my holiday celebrations worked well last year so I'm doing it again. That doesn't mean I give myself permission to eat everything in sight until I can't move. No, it's not a ticket to gluttony. It's simply permission to not beat myself up if I want to enjoy a piece of pumpkin pie here or a Christmas cookie there. I will just have small portions of the things I enjoy and keep it totally under control like I did last year. There's just something about giving myself permission that feels like I'm giving myself a hug. It's good for the soul, you should try it.

Fitness Fear Friday - Procrastination (guest post)

Hey there active peeps! It's Friday! WooooHooooo! You know what that means though right? Fitness Fears discussion day. Today, enjoy Big Girl Bomshell here and I'm hanging out over at her place. Take it away Jules.
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Thank God it’s Friday. Now, I can move on. This week has been hell for me. You see, its been a little over a month since I wrote my last guest post here on Fitness Fear Friday. Oh, I was feeling over-
confident. Last month, I talked about learning to walk all over again. Well, up until this week, I have
been walking or riding my bicycle, yes a bicycle, just about every day. Yep! So darn proud of myself;
And then it hit!

The Fear Monster, the freeze frame. My fear monster has a name…procrastination. BIG TIME! Poor
Salina. She is probably wondering what the hell happened. We are trading posts today and here it is
early in the morning and I have re-written this post a thousand times.

First it was, well, she wants a picture of Jackie..my bicycle..camera batteries were dead, oh forgot
the camera, oh no, no time for that now. La, La, La. That is me. Off into my own world. Oh, damn,
got to get that done for Salina. Don’t dare let her down; she looks up to me. Don’t blow your image.

KABOOM! There it went. The whole “ You got it together girl” just blew up in my face.

My tools for procrastination….ADD more! Yep. That is what I do. It allows me to run around like a
chicken with my head cut-off, going to a little Henny- Penny side of the sky is falling, which then leads
me to “What’s the Use?!”

This is the point where I feel the need to turn to food and just sit. Gorge myself on sweets until I can’t
feel anymore. BUT…today is different. I have felt the fear all week AND while I didn’t get out there
and exercise, I waited until the last minute to write my blog posts, I DIDN’T fill up my time with FOOD.

Oh don’t get me wrong, I had fantasies about Oreo cookies and chocolate bars and BIG pieces of
cake. But today, I didn’t let myself down. Instead of clearing my full plate by eating; I slowly started
scraping things into the garbage to make room for a clean plate.

So, YEP, I still have a ton of fear around fitness but the difference is, I only let it derail me for a
moment. I didn’t sabotage the whole plan. This weekend…Jackie and I are going to spend some time
together. Next weekend, I am walking a 6K. And the month of September, my fitness goal is to quit
procrastinating about weight training.

Jenny's Adventures at Long Beach

Long Beach, WA....not California. I've been here before but have no memory of this Discovery Trail. It runs about 13 miles from start to finish. It starts at the Port of Ilwaco and goes up through the hills of Cape Disappointment and along the ocean dunes up to Long Beach, WA. We started in Long Beach and went south. Here are the pictures of our adventure. Enjoy!

There are lots of neat sculptures and things along the path. This was our first encounter.

Whale bones

Who's got 2 thumbs and is wearing a funny hat? This Guy!

What a mighty big gun you have

Oh Tim Burton, where are you?

Wait, I have to take a picture of the cool tree.

Oh Jenny, you're so dramatic.

Wooden dolphins...umkaaaaay

I totally have the Rocky song playing my head right now. The hills in the distance is Cape Disappointment.

Me in action! I'm actually talking to myself but you can't really hear it.

Are you filming me? Nerd!

Just a beach off the trail

Entering Cape Disappointment. Nasty hills. Make sure you have more than 7 gears to do it. Ouch!

The cave behind me is a lot bigger than it looks on the picture. Scary...

Are we in the jungle now? I was expecting a tiger to jump out of the thick.

We go this way. No! That way. Wait. There's a map.

Um.....where are we?

:)

Take a photo break and let the sweat dry up a little

That's bicycle abuse.

One of the lighthouses at Cape Disappointment

Jenny admiring the view. Preeeeetty.

She's so photogenic

Now that's a lot of poop. Yes...it's bird poop. Ew!

Sneak a little peak through the trees

On the road again. Not bad for taking this picture over my shoulder.

The Port of Ilwaco was having their Saturday market. Have you ever seen purple bell peppers before?

I love markets

This thing was HUGE!

Because it's just WRONG!

Another little sneak peak through the trees.

I don't know what it is but I like it

The other lighthouse in Cape Disappointment

The beach at Long Beach

Um....ya....just see for yourself.

Just to explain a little....I use to do that when I was a kid. My little brother and I would stomp on the soggy sand to try to make huge mud puddles. We'd compete to see who could make a bigger mud puddle the fastest. You have to do it constantly or it'll harden up right away.  Ah....memories.

The End

Matrix Philosophy

I've seen it a few times and it amazes me every time I see it. I've seen bloggers contemplate hanging up their quill and ink from the land of blogz for whatever reason. Perhaps they just don't have the time anymore. Perhaps they have accomplished their goal. Perhaps they have struggled too many times and are fighting their inner demons and choose to do it without making it a public spectacle. I've seen other bloggers, the die-hards, comment and harangue those thinking about calling it quits. Why?

I use to work at a financial institution doing financial planning for individuals looking to save for their retirement or to buy their dream house or to send their first born to college or to figure out how to get their first born off their couch so they could hop in the Winnebego and head for the greener grass, sure to stop for photo hour at the world's largest ball of twine.

There was a culture at that institution, or at least in the office I worked out of that was seemingly designed to make anyone who decided the career or the company or the culture wasn't a good fit for them feel like a failure or worse yet, a quitter. I saw advisors, some very smart and driven people cower under the pressure. I saw people with great potential choose to stay somewhere working 100+ hours per week making no more than $25,000 or $30,000 per year because they couldn't stand the idea that they might be labeled as a quitter or a failure if they chose to leave.

I'll admit it. I drank the coolaide for a while. Then one day, I woke up. I had a sense of clarity wash over me, much like the scene from The Matrix where Neo had to choose the red pill or the blue one. I took the pill and finally saw the world for what it really was. I did the math. At 100 hours per week, $30,000 per year works out to be about $5.77 per hour and that's without any time off. Was I willing to work for less than minimum wage? And was I willing to sacrifice my personal time for a job that made me feel like a failure if I wasn't willing to work for less than minimum wage? Is that what I spent 11 years getting an advanced degree for? Absolutely not. Then why did I sit there for one year voluntarily sipping the juice?

One word: PRIDE

People who choose to leave bloggerville are no more quitters or failures than I was in leaving the toxic work environment I found myself in. We all have to evaluate our lives, our families, our friendships, our work, and yes, our hobbies every now and again. We will all come to different conclusions about what is right for us at whatever point we are in our lives. Working where I did served a purpose in my life at the time. Leaving it behind allowed me to learn from it and use that knowledge to grow as a human being and as a professional.

Pride is a powerful thing. It can challenge us to stand up for ourselves. It can build us up if we feel deflated. It can also knock us down and hold us there if we let it. It can control us if we allow it to become too powerful. The beauty of it is that we all have the freedom to decide for ourselves what is too much and what is not enough and choose our actions accordingly. It was not for my superiors or my coworkers at the financial institution to decide the limits of my pride or how I should interpret them. And it's not up to anyone else to project their own ideas of success or failure onto those bloggers who may be choosing to reevaluate their hobbies.

Facing the truths of who we are and what we want can be a very scary thing to do. Choosing to take actions to correct our mistakes or realign our lives to the path we desire can be even scarier.

It takes courage.

How much courage do you have?

Jenny's Adventures on Burke-Gilman Trail Part 1

Burke-Gilman Trail is about 22 miles long from start to finish and runs from Seattle to Kenmore.

It's mostly flat and mostly just a bicycle path (very little road time with cars) but there are a few small hills and a few areas that require riding on the street in a bike lane.

I just rode about 16 miles. I started from the red X below and went north to Kenmore and back. Actually, where the path "ends" in Kenmore, it just becomes a new path called the Sammamish River Trail which then goes to Redmond, WA along the Sammamish Slough. I wouldn't mind doing that part of it some day soon either because there are a few wineries down in that area. Mmmmm Washington wine!

Jenny's Adventures on Burke-Gilman Trail Part Deux will be from the red x down through the city. I can't wait for that portion. It's coming soon so stay tuned. Lots of interesting things to see from that part of the trail.

Most of the north end of the trail is like this with trees and bridges. The path is relatively nice. It's clean at least. No garbage. It feels secluded in a few places. There are quite a few lumps and bumps though because of tree roots. Makes the ride a little more interesting.

10 Ton Load Limit, I think I'm safe

Look! Civilation.

Kenmore Airport

Sea Planes are the Coolest!

Boat Parking Garage?

I passed this huge mural on the way up north but didn't notice it until the return trip.

Some Beautiful Views of Lake Washington

Kenmore Traffic. :)

Look at that sky! Ominous.

I picture two old guys sitting here playing checkers

Say Cheese

Here is a neat list of trails in and around the Pacific Northwest I found. Very handy.

I'm thinking I might need to style up a little more for my rides. 
I'm thinking hats.
I'm thinking fun with shoes.
I'm thinking skirts with tights.

What do you think?