Category Archives: goals

June 3, 2011 · 1:38 pm

How’d You Move?

Morning!

Anyone out there remember December’s comment commit?

Comment Commit is a forum for supporting each other in our exercise/healthy living goals and ambitions.  It’s a way to give myself-and you-a little accountability, recognition, and a place to brag a bit about our accomplishments.

I have set some lofty exercise goals for this month and I would love your help accomplishing them.  You can help me by leaving a comment with your exercise plans/goals for the week.  Seeing your motivation to move will help motivate me to move, and hopefully visa versa!

We will set our goals on Mondays throughout June and check back in on Fridays to acknowledge all of our valiant effort.

It’s super simple to participate.  On Mondays I will state my weekly goals in a post and you submit your own goals in a comment to that post.  Same same on Fridays except here we will brag about our accomplishments or lament about our obstacles.

In fact, identifying obstacles is part of the game.  Did you set realistic goals or was it in a Monday morning fog when you decided a triathlon a day sounded doable?  Do you need to workout in the morning because it’s too easy to get distracted later in the day?  Do you try to do certain activities because you know it’s good for you but actually you despise it and in turn end up skipping out?

Identifying obstacles each week will help us set realistic and attainable goals, resulting in a sense of accomplishment rather than a sense of falling short.

Since it’s Friday I thought we’d start this thing out on the upswing.  What movement goals did you accomplish this week?  Even if you didn’t set specific goals on Monday I think most regular exercises have a sense of their workout week.

I had great 20-30 minute strength training sessions on Monday and Wednesday, sweaty 4.5 mile runs on Tuesday and Thursday, quick Pilates workouts Monday and Thursday, and 20 minute yoga sessions Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  I really enjoyed all of these workouts and with the exception of Tuesday’s run (too hot!) they left me feeling energized, strong, healthy, and happy.

Today I will run, practice yoga, and strength train for a combined workout of just over an hour.  Tomorrow is active rest; whitewater rafting in West Virginia!  Tate and I are hauling a few carloads of Cville friends back to our old stomping grounds for an outdoorsy weekend (we got together while we were both working as raft guides in Fayetteville, WV-in the ’90s!).   Sunday’s workout plan is run + yoga.

How’d you move this week?  Tell me all about it!

 

22 Comments

Filed under goals, running, workouts, yoga

Tagged as , , ,

May 31, 2011 · 5:32 pm

Big Birthday Blog

Is “easy run” an oxymoron when it’s pushing 95 degrees out?

The juries still out (I need a few more trials) but my theme for summer runs is “embrace walking up the hills and falling down them”.  Don’t worry, I’m not falling on my face.  I shift my whole upper body forward slightly and make my legs keep up.  Try it, it’s kind of fun.

There is a big birthday today; this blog is one year old!  Gracefulfitness was started on May 31st 2010 at an internet cafe in Kathmandu, Nepal and what a year it’s been!  The blog and my life as a whole have seen huge changes over the last 12 months.

My relationship with blogs started in the fall of 2009 when I saw a reference to Oh She Glows in a women’s fitness magazine (don’t remember which one!).  I was living in Peru at the time and immediately enjoyed reading “healthy living” blogs because I felt connected to all of these great women who were into the same stuff I am.  Over the next several months I sporadically kept up with a handful of blogs and before long the idea of started my own began to spiral in my head.

Last May I finally logged onto to WordPress, dove in, and immediately fell in love with blogging.

Blogging suits me so well be cause I am a project kind-of-gal.  I love having a project going on, when I was a kid it was writing and distributing a newsletter in our community or making and selling grape juice (the plan was fresh squeezed but by the end it was mostly Welch’s).  Through high school, college, and beyond my life was dance and I choreographed and produced five independent shows.

I am also a writer.   Perhaps not always skilled or grammatically correct but I’ve kept journals off-and-on since I could put pen to paper.  As a kid I used to write poetry books (and, of course, The Sassafras Times as mentioned above) and writing assignments in school were always easier, more fun, and received higher marks than anything to do with math or science.

Blogging is a wonderful outlet for me share my passion for exercise and food, which has always been there I just haven’t always tapped into the right attentive audience/community.

My family is big into taking pictures and I am no exception.  I’ve always LOVED the way photography captures moments, experiences, and details.  One of my favorite aspects of blogging is having a reason to take tons of pictures and see the world through a camera lens.

And lastly, I adore the community that blogging builds.  This blog community has been with me through a year of travel, transition, and settling into a new home.  I cherish each of you, from my early readers (that’s you Joanne!) to my most regular commenters (thanks Angie and Allie!) and of course my now dear friend Kath.

It’s surreal to realize it’s already been a year, I still think of Gracefulfitness as a mere bitty baby blog but in cyber years it must be approaching adolescents.  I am thrilled with the growth of the blog over the last year, both in readership and in my personal growth as a blogger, and am really excited to see what the second year will bring.

24 Comments

Filed under goals