On the bright side

Yesterday I finished taking the GRE, after studying fervently for many weeks. I actually ended up doing not as good as I did the time before. Never the less, I will have a good attitude about it. I have faith that I will get into grad school and get my LPC (licenced professional counselor). I am not going to worry about it.
I finished that day off with going to work. The night before the boss had a talk with me, expressing some things I need to improve on. I want to show through my work that I can meet her standards. I came into work the next day with a smile and a great attitude. I didn't just stand around I kept myself busy, scrubbing the counters. It was nice to feel like I was doing as scripture reads in Colossians 3:22-25. I will serve my earthly masters as if I am serving the king of the universe, Yahweh. I will do my work with a good attitude and work hard all the time - not only when they are watching. I won't complain when my boss makes me do menial work, to make the place spotless. Yahweh would want his place spotless as well.

Now that I have the GRE behind me I can focus on other goals.

Inspiration from the Elderly

I struggle regularly to keep consistant in my exercise and diet. Lately my methods are to make small goals and try and complete them each day. Today my goal is to wake up early, exercise, and eat no sweets. I have already completed two of those goals :-).

Currently my method of exercise is jump rope. I like it. I feel like the momentum of the rope keeps me motivated to keep going. As you can see from my past post I have tried doing exercises like cruches and puch ups, things of that nature. With those exercises it is always a struggle to keep going. It's a lot easier to watch tv while jumping rope than doing floor exercises too. Being able to watch tv while exercising is also motivating. It keeps me distracted from how tired I am.

I like to keep track of my successes. I have a calendar that I put check marks on the days I meet a goal, and I write what I did. I also have an excel document to keep track of exercises I do. I can later use the information I put in there to create a graph. I also keep track of my weight and the measurement around my belly. Lately the scales have been going up, but I don't want to get discouraged.

I met a elderly lady at work last night. Her name was Sarah. She was 93 years old, still walking, and with a sound mind. She told me about her regular routiene. She wakes up around 6am each day and does exercises. The exercises help her osteo-arthritus. She says every step she takes hurts when she walks, but it is amazing a lady of her years can walk at all. She has never even had a hip replacement. She also has a regular schedule for cleaning. Each day of the week has a differnt cleaning task. She is now living with her son, and she says she wants to clean the house to contribute. I also am living rent free with my parents. I need to do regular cleaning for them as well. She is such an inspiration to me. I need to wake up early, do exercises, and clean regularly too. While talking to her I realized also that I need to wake up early and do my exercises, so I am tiried at the end of the day. I often have insomnia, but if I have that schedule, then it will help me get to sleep at night. If a lady of her age can do all that, then I need to as well. I am lazy compared to her. I need to step up my game and get active!

The Best Day Ever

Just a day ago I was thinking about how my behavior was showing that I was depressed, the next day I had the best day ever.

Evidence of my depression:
Sleeping too much. Lack of motivation - I really needed to do my laundry, change my sheets and clean my room in general. I finally did wash my clothes, but have yet to put these clothes up. I was so glued to my bed and had lack of motivation that I stayed in bed and skipped going to work.
I lost my job.

The best day ever began with me making some small goals.
+Wake up every day at 9am (no matter if it is weekend or work day). Try to get up directly when the alarm rings, no snooze, try to use only one alarm.
+Do one cleaning job a day (ex: laundry)
+Exercise at least 30 minutes a day

I ended up not sleeping the night before the best day ever, so I couldn't count waking up at 9am. I still got out of bed at that time though. I did complete a full 30min of exercise. I met one of my goals! Even if it takes me several days to get all my goals completed it is still a success to meet one.
I began to put my laundry away, but was distracted by the tree outside my window. I noticed how the leaves were clusered together and how the branches began as one, but coninued to the far twigs that held the leaves. I wanted to draw it, so I did.

I was drawing it from my window. I could see the branches that were hidded when the wind blew the leaves away from my view. I was straining to see every connection. I ultimately decided to go draw outside. I began on my small note pad, but it was evident I needed a bigger canvas, so I brought out my large newsprint pad. After drawing for awhile I wanted to visit the back yard where my parents were. I noticed the beautiful blooming flowers and decided to take pictures. I really got into it, getting the perfect angle and lighting. I even used the macro setting for some fun focus tricks.

While I was taking pictures a humming bird came by and stopped right in front of me in mid-air. It was posing for me! Since I had my camera ready I was able to get a picture of it front and center. I was touched my an angel! I started to cry. It was a blessing. At that moment my mood shifted from photographer to serenity. I stopped and soaked it all in - the beauty of the day, nature, the blessing of the day.
I was now giving thanks to Yahweh (my heavenly father). Yesterday I was wallowing im my muck and today I am soaking in the presence of Yahweh. It was delightful.

Yahweh through the Rouach Quodesh (Holy Spirit) spent the day with me. He told me some things about myself that I needed to hear. These things filled my existensial vaccumm. I was at a place where I felt like I had no purpose - no meaning in my life. He showed me who I am and what my talents are. He showed me that being in the nature helped open me up to recieving this message. I spend so much time glued to my hand held computer that it is like putting on blinders to the world. Being outside that day enabled me to open up to the revelations I needed to hear to bring me out of my depression.
I now have a  renewed since of self: I am a princess of Yahweh. I am an artist. I am a singer.
I now have inspiration: inspiration to create a motion picture, inpiration that led me to create a song, and inspiration that led me to make photographs and a drawing, and insiration to get another job!

Standing Abs Workouts

Sometimes it feels less like an exercise if you are standing up to do it. Doing crunches on the floor can get old. Mix it up with standing ab exercises.

Fitness Blender Standing Abs Workout - video and reference sheet

More to be added later

Efficient Exercises

Dr. Oz often features weight loss tips and exercises from people well known in the field and often provides evidence based information to give you the best results. From watching the videos below I learned that doing high intensity interval training will give the best results. High intensity means getting your heart rate up. One expert said that doing just 10 minutes of the exercise in that video is more effective than an hour of jogging. That was a shocker because at the beginning of this blog I thought doing a weekly long distance job would be a good idea, but now I realize it isn't as good as these workouts. If at first you feel like you can't do the exercise as it is supposed to be done just do it to your best ability (some provide modifications). After you do the exercises more your muscles will build up are you can do it as it is shown. You will work a sweat up. The goal of these exercises is to do them quickly to build your heart rate. Go hard, because it really isn't for a long period of time.
If you want to do these exercises I recommend watching the videos the first time to see how it is done, then you can use my cheat sheet. For the cheat sheet I looked really closely at the videos to make sure I got the moves correct. Then I drew out stick men to show how to move in the exercise and wrote a description. I hope that you can understand my notes. To print the reference sheet right click on it and click "save image as" then open it on your computer and click print.

Dr. Oz Exercise Videos:
5-min Body Reshaping Workout
The Ultimate Biggest Loser Workout

Chris and Heidi Powell's 9-Minute Workout

The 5-Minute Fat-Shredding Workout

Tony Horton's 10-Minute Workout 

5-Minute Metabolism-Boosting Workout 

Quick Reference Sheet:
right click save image as to view larger or print

Bonus:

Chris Powell's 5-Minute Carb-Busting Workout