Exercise!... Good for the soul... Bad for my thighs...

Laws... So this evening, after emptying out the Freezer-that-was, as well as chasing coos, (cows) from the gate as we eviscerated the... freezers guts. I got very good at closing my own nose off and mouth breathing. I decided today is just the day I needed to start my own shenanigans...

This means, I did Giddy Up from Country Heat. It's not the newest, but a newer program from BeachBody. Country Line Dancing... Though I am sure if you looked at my window as you drove by, I probably resembled a drunken squirrel trying to climb a tree.

But I digress, I enjoy it, and feel the burn. My thighs are quivering, even from the dance Modifications (You know, the different way of doing things for people who are like me and I don't move like a rubber band... more like... a rusty tin man).

It's not that it's hard, it isn't. It's not that it isn't fun, otherwise I would NOT have owned the Drunken Squirrel resemblance. It's that it makes you move, simply, but steadily. The Steady pace is key - It doesn't wind you as bad, and it makes it easier to adapt to what you need to do.

Fun part? I shook my booty, a lot... more than I should have probably. My child walked in my room, watched and then shrunk off in shame at her Momma shaking her booty.

So not only did I win by Exercising... I won by embarrassing my daughter. Ha!

Goal Power!

I have set a goal.

That being said.... It is amazing the mindset you develop when you have settled yourself to a goal and embraced it.

... I will fully admit to being a crabby, zombie like mom. You make the supper, you get them cleaned up, you do the homework. Cycle after bloody cycle.

With the goal in mind and seeing the possibilities - I feel more alert and awake. I have everything I measure against meeting this goal. You wouldn't think that setting a goal and working to achieve it would make such a difference... But then why wouldn't it?

Setting Goals gives you focus and helps you set a standard for what you want to achieve.

Example -- Cleaning house? The FlyLady System is such a popular and working cleaning system for people who just... We don't clean. Have no idea what the 'f' that porous square is, shouldn't it be on TV making some annoying Giggle?

But the reason it works so well? Every step is a little goal. You achieve something and feel so much better because your small goals, small ladder steps if you would are getting you to the top so you can see so much better.

Exercise is the same thing, dieting is the same thing. the 21 Day Fix - it's through Beachbody, and right now they are having a sale on the whole system for $140.00, does the same thing. You set goals on the canisters of food, and it is so often more than you really can eat. I feel so much better when I follow this, and that is my goal now. Getting of this large tukus of mine and making this happen.

Small steps baby.... Small goals that stack up to make an awesome goal met. I think the top of this mountain is gonna look great when I get there.

For further information on goal setting and how to make it successful: http://thesuccessninja.com/setting-goals/ 

Living Passionately is hard...

Strange part of living passionately, is sometimes the engine runs out of steam. I've been divorced a year and a half now, and my ex is engaged and already a father to another child. I am still struggling with my children. But I love them and could not do without them.

But I lost my steam, I lost my passionate reasoning. And it's hard. Passion is something I want to be at the core, passion for my friends and family. Passion in caring for my community. But my passion, over the last year and a half, fizzled.

You look on blogs all the time, or simply on your Facebook, and it reminds every mother out there to take care of herself so she has something to give. For awhile I thought that was something only those who had another half could do.

...Then I had an epiphany.... 

Passion, is much like an Amish Friendship Loaf starter. You start it, you feed it, and then, you have to bake with it. It feeds your soul, in yummy carbohydrate heaven. But there is a small problem with it, after you have satisfied your soul, it's still growing. So now, you have all these soul carb loaves, and no chink to stuff them in with your own soul. So what do you do? .... You spread your soul food to others and help inspire them to begin. Once they taste it for awhile, they may ask you how you make it. .... You'd give them a starter and the process begins all over again.

My starter had died. Slowly though, my best friend came along and kept sharing her soul food with me. Now, I've started producing my own soul food again. Only Jamie did not share the very butt widening experience of Amish Friendship Loaf - She shared BeachBody. PiYo, to be specific.

It has been a great experience. I feel motivated for the first time in a long time to do more with my life than just struggle to raise the two kidlets that I was blessed with. I'm even writing again folks, and trust me when I say this is a wonderful thing I never thought I'd be doing.