Project Hot Bod 2012

My roommate Shmems (Emily) and I have made the decision to go to the gym every week day this semester.  So far, we haven't missed a single day.  When there's no school, we get up by 10am and head over to the gym our apartment complex has.  We'd go up on campus, but what's the point when we have a perfectly good gym that is hardly ever occupied?  We love it.  We do cardio, stretching, and weights.  This week we're challenging ourselves to stay fifteen minutes longer than we did last week, which felt so good this morning.

I've never been one for the gym.  I've gone in the past, I've tried to get into a habit, but it's never really stuck.  I've never really felt good about going nor had the desire to go back.  This time around, that isn't the case.  I feel great.  I feel the desire to go every day.  If I don't go, like I didn't on Saturday, I feel a little bit lazy and I don't have the same amount of energy.  I've been turned into a believer.

Some of my goals for this year with regards to project hot bod 2012:

• Go to the gym every weekday
• Walk/run at least a mile every day
• No soda, limited juice
• Lots more water
• Only eating out Friday-Saturday night, no exceptions

Having Shmems do this with me is helping me stick to it. 

Booya

“Water is the only drink for a wise man"

I made the goal last November to quit soda for the month.  I think I lasted until the 29th when I got this drink called Purple Stuff because it's kind of the "it" drink in my apartment.  This semester, I'm quitting soda for the whole shebang.  That's right, no soda, no purple stuff, no carbonated water for this girl until April.  That is, if I decide I don't want to extend this.  

Water is the bomb.  I can't get enough, especially here in Rexburg when I never feel hydrated enough.  Bring it on.

"Maybe I'm a girl"

There's a song by Paul McCartney that was covered by the artist Jem called Maybe I'm Amazed and there's a line that says, "Maybe I'm a girl, maybe I'm a lonely girl in the middle of something that she doesn't really understand" and when I listened to that, I thought to myself, "Hey, I think I am that girl." I'm in this stage of life that's so full of crazy, changing things that I really don't know exactly what it is that I'm doing.

There are a lot of things I don't understand.

That being said..."baby, won't you help me understand?"

2011

January

• Culinary Certified.  I'm so legit.
• Compliment of the year at work.  An old man in an ascot told me my smile is worth millions.
• Sam returned after two excruciatingly long years
• Reapplying to BYU-Idaho.  
• Job hunting

February

• Starbucks. They hired me.
• Gs and Gents.  The sickest dance party my house has ever hosted
• Hot tub nights at Jayson's
• Devastation and Katie Roberts being there to comfort me
• Rendevouz

March

• The birth of my niece, Kate!
• Night on the town with the Ladies at Club BANG!
• Monster shots
• Heartbreak and the realization of a long illusion
• Farewell to Brookstone...again.

April

• Six Flags pass!!!!!!
• PINK HAIR
• Heather's WEDDING.  She's MARRIED
• Hockey games, TV shows, late nights at Erik's
• Forgetting

May

• Birthday games of twister
• D-Box theater and Pirates 4.  What a fun night
• Pajamas and parties
• Overly active social life
• Freddie putting up with my cheerful face every.morning.

June

• Afternoon naps in the sunshine
• Midnight trips to the beach
• Hannah moves in!
• Freddie and Lorretto sharing me.
• Zumba dancing in my living room

July

• Dodger Baseball, all you can eat dogs.
• Glow in the dark party a mi casa
• Duke's with Stefanie.  What a perfect evening
• France: It's a dream
• Whipped cream battle of epic proportions 

August

• Cliff jumping
• The day Freddie made me cry at work.  NOT FUNNY
• Purchasing my longboard.   It's so beautiful..
• Monterey trip, complete with penguins, clam chowder, and more exotic cars than I've ever seen before
• Farewell Starbucks, it was a great ride.

September

• Moving back to Idaho.  I followed my gut, it was the right decision.
• Trips to the caves and dance parties (gross!)
• AWESOME Roommates
• Rockin' classes
• Conference Roadtrip.  So much fun.  So much traffic...

October

• Erik's visit: straw maze, dance party, games, Big Jud's, Mesa Falls...
• My first real asthma attack.  It was terrifying
• Zombie Apocalypse.  It happened.
• Nights spent with the 411 guys.  
• Walking Dead Sundays

November

• Friday night sleepovers of awesome
• The cold.  It happened.
• Thanksgiving at home!  What a wonderful trip
• The best pie crust recipe ever.  It's made with lard, so it HAS to be good
• Skrillex and Christmas decorating.  They go hand in hand.

December

• Completely on a whim making one of the best decisions I made all semester (Justin, that's you)
• Finishing the best semester of my life.  Straight A's for this girl :]
• Study parties on campus.  It's where the magic happens
• Provo adventures with Carly Jo
• Finishing off the year happier than I started it, with more to look forward to.

I said many times that 2011 would be my year.  For the most part, it was.  I think it was an introduction to the rest of my life.  

Hello 2012.  

"The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed"

I try to be someone who lives in the present, with an eye on the future.  I try to live as an optimist in everything I do.  I try to "let the dead past bury it's dead" and move on with things.  However, there are times when I slip.  There are times when I let the past get me, when I allow pessimism to creep in.  

The truth is, I can't change how things have gone in my past.  I can't change the way I've acted nor the way others have acted towards me.  It's easy to say that these things are just going to be a part of me and that similar situations are going to have the same results.  It's easy to fall into habits of sadness and low confidence.  It's easy to tell myself that I'm not worth it.  

It's times like this, when I feel as though I've fallen under the spell of looking at my feet instead of forward, when I need most of all to pull out every ounce of effort I have and put it towards looking up with a smile.  I am who I am because of the things that have happened to me.  I am a woman with a bright future, I am above the things and people of the past.  I deserve happiness because I know I am worth it.  

I am worth it.

“A healthy body is a guest chamber for the soul: a sick body is a prison”

Yesterday was a pretty good, lazy day.  I ran some errands, I planned on going out to Roscoe's with some friends.  Around 5pm, though, everything took a turn for the worse.  I started to feel sick to my stomach out of nowhere.  I figured I must have eaten one too many rootbeer barrels  but no, it was the stomach flu.

Last night was one of the worst nights I can remember.  I was so so so sick.  I couldn't even keep down two mouth fulls of water, which was all I wanted due to the fact that I was severely dehydrated.  I tried to sleep it off, but I was either too hot or too cold.  I tried a bath, I tried a cold compress.  Nothing was helping.  I was miserable.

By midnight, however, I was able to keep down some water, which I drank greedily.  Around that same time I head noises outside my room and discovered that my younger brother James was sick, too.  By 3am, David joined the ranks of the sick.  It was then that I was able to finally fall into a restful sleep.  5am rolled around and Aaron banged on my door, asking for the medicine.  When I ventured out of bed around 9am, I discovered that my Dad was the only one who remained unscathed by the Stomach Flu of Evil.

Aside from some aches in my body, I feel 100% better.  I'm glad it was a short bug, because last night was honestly terrible.  It was so awful.  And now it's Christmas Eve and my whole family seems disabled.  Everyone is in bed, no one wants to do anything except reel from the night from hell.

Merry Christmas to us.

“There's nothing half so pleasant as coming home again"

After one of the longest weekends of my life, I made it home.  No more detours or being crammed in the back of a pick up truck, no more country music, no more numb knees.  Being able to finally crawl into my bed Sunday night was joyous.  I have a really comfortable bed...

Home is where I go to be refreshed.  Home is the place where as soon as I walk in the door and the sound of my suitcase on the tile travels to the back of the house, I hear my father's booming voice shout out, "Heeey!!!"  I dropped my things and ran to my parents room, greeted by brothers and parentals with their arms stretched out wide to catch me.  I was here just a few short weeks ago for Thanksgiving, but it still feels like ages.  To be welcomes home with such vigor was a delight is one of the best feelings.

I'm grateful to be home, I'm grateful for a family that loves me.  I'm grateful for the most comfortable bed in the world.