HashtagDanceBreak

Happy Monday my loves! I hope you’ve made it through the worst day of the week. And I hope now that you’re off work you’re at home cuddled up on the couch, snuggling a glass (or bottle) of wine and watching either crappy TV or something awesome on Netflix. Either way – I’m jealous of you. Here I sit, for another 4.5 hours at the gym, checking people in, taking their money (not really – but I’ll collect it for the club) and tweeting about the shenanigans I hear/see. And trust me – there’s PLENTY. I’m sure if any of you follow me on Twitter, you’ll see plenty of #gymtweets floating about. I can already feel people dropping their weights in the other room. Yay meat heads!

The last week has been kind of crazy – which I’m not too mad about. I’ve done lots of working – nothing new there – and lots of yoga. Except for this past week – which could explain why I was so testy and angry on Saturday – but let’s save that for later on this evening. I tried out a couple new recipes this last week – both delicious. One turned out a little better than the other – but practice makes perfect right? I’ll be the next Suzy Homemaker before you know it! (Side note: I think it should be spelled like Suzie not Suzy, but it’s too late to change it now.) Recipe number one was Turkey and Rice Stuffed Peppers and Baked Sweet Potato Fries – yum. Could have cooked the fries a little less and the peppers a little more, so now we know for next time. The following night I stole a recipe from Iowa Girl Eats (her blog is AMAZING – check it out: www.iowagirleats.com) and made Sweet Apple Chicken Sausage Pasta. This was FANTASTIC. Toss a Honey Crisp apple into ANYTHING and it makes it like a MILLION times better. Write that down. I’ve been reading a lot of food blogs lately – does that make me weird? – and it just makes me want to cook more and more. Food porn may be one of my favorite things. Again – is that weird? Looking at cookbooks, watching the Food Network, reading food blogs – it’s almost as good as reading those trashy romance novels. A little bit different part of the brain for each of those – but you get what I’m saying. I’m currently searching for a couple new recipes to make this week – healthy, easy, delicious. Send some ideas my way – please and thank you!

I like to think of myself as a pretty athletic person – I mean I’ve played sports, run a 20K, kick box, lift weights – all that fun stuff. So when I decided to hit up a Bosu class at the gym, I thought I’d be good to go. I figured it would be a lot of core work (we can always use more core work) with a bosu ball and some weights. I was so wrong it’s not even funny. Actually I’m sure it was really funny – considering I was walking into a STEP CLASS while using a BOSU BALL. Have you ever been to a step class? That shit is hard. Plus – instead of using an actual step, you’re stepping onto a bosu ball. I was pretty positive I was going to snap my ankle in half. I was so sore the next day I have no idea how I made it to spin. And then I got done with spin and my legs were jello. I took Friday off because I felt like I deserved it. So what did I do to reward myself? I wore heels all day and night. 13 hours on heels makes for SUPER sore feet. I was damn near in tears by 10 pm. Beauty is pain, pain is beauty. Blah blah blah. Whatever – it hurt.

Speaking of working out – CONGRATS to all my runner buddies on completing the half or full marathon this weekend. Y’all are crazy – and I apologize for yelling “YOU’RE ALMOST DONE” when you still had some time to run. I know that if I heard that, I’d probably run over and punch whoever said that in the face. Especially if you hear it like halfway through. Not cool. But for realz though – you guys rule. Mentally AND physically I don’t think I could do it. I cannot wrap my mind around running for FIVE HOURS. Running for two and a half hours for the D2D was too much for me. I would rather ride my bike HUNDREDS of miles during RAGBRAI than I would to RUN 26 of them. Run that through your mind and see if it makes sense. I understand it totally doesn’t – but whatevs. You guys are all an inspiration to those of us who can’t or won’t run like you do. Maybe something I do will be an inspiration to you – it’s a fair trade I think.

As I halfway mentioned earlier, I was not a happy camper on Saturday. It all started with my smoke detector beginning to beep at 6:30 am because of a low battery. And then I took out the battery thinking that would shut it up – wrong. Instead, I set off the actual detector – still at 6:30 am. I’m sure my neighbors were real happy with me. To follow that, the devil children who live above me decided to run sprints across the floor, drop a med ball (or each other – I have no clue) and that all began at 7:00. I was grouchy at that point so I left to go do my trade at the yoga studio, and then another 5 hours at the mall. I came home and it was still beeping. After a reassuring phone call that I’d done all I could (apparently it was hard wired so the battery didn’t even MATTER) I relaxed with an Oktoberfest and left for the night. After a conversation about how I hadn’t done any yoga that week – I was “nicely” told that that was probably the reason I was so high strung during my phone conversation the day before. I knew that yoga zen’d me out, but I didn’t realize how it would affect me when I DIDN’T go and get that 45 minutes or an hour to get out of my own head. Even if I just give myself a 15-20 minute practice, it will lift my spirits and get me in the right mind set for where I need to be.

I stumbled across this while surfing Pinterest, and thought about how much I should have done these things while I was stressed out this weekend.

Just think about how much better of a mood I would be in if I took a deep breath and danced it out. Next time. Next time I start to freak out about something I literally CANNOT control – a dance break may help. Or just a smile. These top 10 things will be on my to-do list for whenever I’ve got an off day. Can’t go wrong with a walk or a hug.

And a quick thought before I go – there’s some tweeting that needs to happen – “if the simple things in life don’t put a smile on your face, then you will never be truly happy.” Ain’t that the truth? A little girl walked into the gym tonight with her mom wearing her dress up heels – ladies you know what I’m talking about, the Barbie heels that cut into your feet but clicked around to make you feel like a beautiful grown up – and she looked so sassy, I had to smile at her. Her mom rolled her eyes and laughed a little, but if we all acted with such happiness the way kids do – this place would be SO MUCH BETTER and not full of ass holes. Smile at the simple things – be happy.

Love and memories,

Me.