Earn the Burn - I think I'm becoming a runner

I never expected to be a runner, I felt it was boring, and stagnant as I've said before, I prefer trying a wide array of odd classes. However sometimes even a quick class can be complicated to make time for and get motivated to get in the car for. A few months ago I stumbled across Fit dash Personality - a tumbler page from a hilarious 20something runner, who's main message was something I could not only understand but totally agreed with:

Slowly but surely her lifestyle and exercise plan seemed do-able. The super clean eating may take some time to get used to, but I'm doing much better than I used to be. Running however has been actually happening (which is shocking to me). So here goes my newest fitness proclamation! I will surprise myself with my ability to run, eat better, and commit to be fit.

Here are a few tips that I've collected that really made me feel confident I can do this:

1- ACTUALLY GO! The hardest part for me was actually putting on my shoes and stepping out the front door. Your first run will be the hardest, so rip off that bandaid and get out there.

2- Start sloooow: even if you're an athlete and go to the gym, learning to run is not easy on your body. If you try to commit to 5 days a week to start off, you'll likely get burnt out and give up.I started on Tuesday, then ran again Friday and have kept that up for almost 8 weeks now. Make it managable and you're much more likely to succeed.

3- Pace yourself: I took about 2.5 miles for my first run and found a tip that recommended you run until your get winded, run another 15 seconds and then walk until you can run again. This has worked very well for me, I've shaved almost a full 2 minutes off my average mile.

4- Track yourself: I'm a huge fan of the Nike+ Running app. I take my phone with me anyway for music so, its super simple to just let the app run while I do. It shows me my route, average speed, and speeds throughout my route (sprints and slow downs etc). Regardless of what you use, be sure to keep note of how long it took you, how far you went and how you feel. Nothing keeps me motivated like watching myself improve. 

5- Reward yourself: I'm a single mom and often feel guilty "splurging" on myself for no reason, however if I've earned it it feels much more justified. So I've started setting goals, which allow me to really strive for something and stay motivated. So here goes my newest fitness goal proclamation!

Goal #1: 3 runs each week for 2 months 

Reward #1: New workout tanks from Rome&Romie

I'll post new goals as I make them, but every plan has to start somewhere. What are some goals (and rewards) of yours? In fitness or general life?

Mermaid Madness - Success Story!

Sunday was a beautiful day for a party in Napa. We had a magical mermaid affair and because I'm perfectly happy tooting my own horn with some of the adorable details, projects and a few shout outs to the vendors and friendly favors that made it happen.


I touched on the invite last week here. I sent it on to a local baker as inspiration for the cake, and it turned out be-a-utiful! Massive thank you goes out to Sweet Sensations in Napa for making this for us.

Here is my favorite fishy project from the event:

Super simple craft! I had the lanterns left over from a party a few years ago, and the inspiration from a picture on pinterest. They came together with a sharpie and some tissue paper fins and tails pushed through and taped small holes cut in sides. I may keep them in the garage just because they make me smile.

Oh look they make her smile too! 

After all the success I almost feel more relaxed about the next few months of holiday chaos. Next Step: mermaid for Halloween.

Sure I'll try it!

I have a theory about learning new things... my theory essentially is "why not?" - I want to try everything once. Sometimes only once but still once. This is a theory I try to press on to Pretty Girl constantly so she too wants to try everything, even if it's only once.

Napa just happens to be a great place to have this particular theory.  We happen to have a very wide and sometimes quite surprising range of classes offered. Most of the ones I have tried, and gotten Pretty Girl to try are physical. However there is a whole other group of artistic bases offerings that I have  yet to scratch the surface of.

For me fitness and motivation have never been easy, going to the gym 3 days a week only happened when I had a gym buddy who literally came by and picked me up.  Here are a few of our favorites and why I love them:

  Sunglow Hoop Dance: Lilea has an amazing passion for hooping! She's amazingly willing to share that passion with locals and teach so many adults that you can do it and it just takes a little coaching. She also hosts partys and performs throughout town. Hooping has been a great addition to my fitness regime something easy to do but is great on your core and has childcare built right in!

Dance: Really any dance, but latest discover has been a great class from World Beat Dance Collective. A delicious look into dances from so many cultures from Afro-cuban and Samba to Hip Hop, throw in a Yoga warm up and cool down and my legs are sore for days.

Some of the best classes for Little P have been dance and swim. She loves music and loves to dance so we've tried a couple different sources. The first class we were in was cancelled due to a small class. So she recently started Hip Hop with Young Champions - its turning out to be a great program for her and she's really excited.

Our other big class has been Swim Lessons. We love to travel and I hope to travel wit her as much as I did when I was young. Swim lessons was a requirement for us. So she swim in each of the 7 seas and every pool in every hotel!

Please take the next class you find interesting, try out a class, grab a friend and go look silly. You'll make great friends and be amazed at what you can do.
Or at least just have a great time hanging out!

The Return of the DJ

2 years ago, one of my last posts prior to my hiatus featured The DJ. Well I guess I didn't go into much about him really, just that he existed and was an inspiration for why we are drawn to passionate types.

Then he was new, we were working out our expectations of each other and really ourselves. The short story is the last 2 years have been great and he'll continue to be part of the DreamTeam.
 

He's still a DJ known as Artimus Prime and regardless of what pays the bills, music is his passion. And regardless how much I understand listening to his music speak there a higher level of appreciation and camaraderie to listen to him 'geek out' over music makes me feel less of an obscure artsy type when it comes to all my expressive and reflective activities. And even explores that side of me further... encouraging things like my Hooping Habit and our trip to Burning Man in 2014.

What's even better is that we can spend time practicing our separate arts, together. Its like having a permanent soundtrack to work from! I'll go swoon elsewhere now.

Photo credit goes to Samantha Madnick over at Samanthaphotos.com

mermaid madness

My soon to be 6 year old is a mermaid, well at least she wants to be. We're in the middle of planning a wonderfully sweet mermaid party.

Now I've been terrible about setting aside writing time in the midst of party planning a strange array of other activities, however I can't help but share the lovely invites designed by the amazing lady behind LIVWITHROSES . She hasn't gotten her permanent store up and running but was willing to help out a friend. :)


 Maybe next week will include many adorable projects that turned out just as I hoped, but only time will tell. (Suggestions are still welcomed at this point). Have a wonderful week!