Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Life is Hard

But do you know what is super difficult? Fundraising. I am so, so, so, SO sick of coming up with fundraising ideas for InMotion. But life goes on.

Shameless plug: if you're on Temple's campus next Monday, please stop by Qdoba and buy some Mexican-ish food. 20% goes to InMotion's stand against Breast Cancer.

Print it, use it, love it.

I know, we know, everybody knows. Fundraising is old news. Stop asking me for your money, I'm not going to give it to you. Especially not if I have to buy food in order to do it. ESPECIALLY if it's Qdoba.

But what REALLY blows my mind in terms of difficulty is fundraising for YOURSELF. And actually getting people to help you out. People that aren't your mom and dad. (Dad. I'm still waiting.)

So here's the bothersome post that will (hopefully) entertain you at the very least with my charm and excellent writing. Right? Right.

So if you've spoken to me or read this blog for more than a minute, you know that I'm running the Broad Street Run this year in Philadelphia. I'm actually severely doubting myself that I will be able to run ten miles, but I refuse to back out. Even if I have to crawl all the way to the finish, I am going to get this done. Although. If I'm crawling I might not make the time limit. I might have to come up with an alternative there.

This is the most intense crawling picture Pinterest had for me.

At the very beginning of this whole adventure, a friend of a friend talked to me about joining a team for Uplifting Athletes. Now, I certainly think running ten miles counts as being an athlete. And I'm running to raise money for kidney cancer and other rare diseases that affect lives very prominently, but don't often get the attention that they deserve because it's unknown to most people. You can read about their history here, but I think using your skills is a great way to raise money for people who don't get the attention they deserve. They have a great program at Penn State and have different chapters at different universities if you want to look into that as well!

So here's the scoop. If you've made it this far: awesome. Great. Stick with me for another two seconds or so.

Yes. I'm asking for your money. But very politely and very sweetly!

What I'm doing is I'm aiming to get a one dollar donation per mile I intend to run. (That's $10, my dears.) I know people don't have money to throw around. I really, really do. So I would so appreciate it if you were able to donate $.50, $.25, even $.05 per mile. I think it's a really nifty way to put me up to the task of running these ten miles and also give money to a great cause.

My donation page is right here and I would absolutely love it if you would consider it for more than a second and even think about donating! Please let me know if you do so, because I want to thank you so profusely and let you know how much you mean to me.

And just in case you need some more incentive. Have some musical theater thrown in your face!

*Don't be offended if there's a naughty word thrown in there. It's good for the most part! :)


I'm not raising money for monsters. But the concept still applies. :)

What fundraisers have been super successful for you? Any tips?

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Spring Slump

It was the first day of Spring yesterday, as I'm sure nearly the entire world knows. I did NOT enjoy my free water ice yesterday because I get that any time I want. At least I can bring some kind of perks to the table.

The title of this post may not make any sense because I love Spring. And I love being outside. I spend all of my free time out there, so I had better.

Mister Softee on campus. Duh.

It may be because of this crazy hectic week I'm having. But I just need to air out my grievances and then I'll get back to my regularly scheduled happy self.

  • By the time I finish my day, I'm ready to fall over. Well, smart one, this means that you're trying to do too much in a day. And that, my friends, is why I'm taking it incredibly easy this week. Don't get me wrong, there is a buttload of dancing involved. But this is not the week to train myself crazy and have no enthusiasm for my life during my show on Sunday.
  • Class is annoying and a waste of my time. So take a day off, get over it. (Oh...look. Is it ten o'clock? Am I in psych? No. I'm a very good listener to myself.)
  • I have these huge anatomy tests this week and next. Every anatomy test is huge, Amanda. Remind yourself of why you love it and study it, dummy.
  • I feel gross and disgusting. See two above this one. Also, shower. Showers are nice.
Okay, that was cool. I got sick of myself halfway through and decided to stop.

I REALLY DO LOVE SPRING, I PROMISE!

After this Sunday, I am STICKING to my training schedule. No questions about that. Expect a post about my fundraising efforts for the Broad Street Run next week. And expect a lot of outdoor fun. And a post about two new additions to my family.

They aren't living. Don't panic.

HAPPY SPRING.

You make me sneeze, but maybe I'll come visit. {p}


What did you get for your free Rita's flavor?

Sunday, March 18, 2012

A-Z Survey

I'm feeling a little bit stressed out with fitting everything into my life right now in terms of work/homework/dance/exercise. So what am I going to do? Fill out a survey instead. I don't know about you, but I can't work with an unclear head. So this one has been buzzing around the blog world recently, so I thought I'd give it a go. I'm a new blogger trying to get out there I guess, so now you'll get to know me! Maybe?

Thank you to Janetha at Meals and Moves for writing out the template and making my day a little bit better. :)

Read About My Life, Yay!

A is for age: Twenty-one! Wooo!! I've been told this is the best year of your life and then it goes downhill from there, but I think I can defy that logic.

B is for breakfast today: Scrambled eggs with jelly toast and water. Nothing too crazy, but it certainly hit the spot. Plus Paul cooked it for me. So you know!


C is for currently craving: I know this is supposed to be a food. But can I crave the beach? I really want to crave the beach. Take me there, please.


D is for dinner tonight: I wish I could tell. I have a really long tech rehearsal tonight with not a lot of time for dinner. So I'm trying to work out what I can eat without a) throwing up or b) passing out. 


E is for favorite type of exercise: DANCE! I love dancing. :D


F is for an irrational fear: I am so scared of bees. It's unnatural.


G is for gross food: Tomatoes. I thought I was healed. But I'm not.


H is for hometown: Schnecksville, PA! Awww yeah.


I is for something important: Sleep. I'm not one of those people that keep working into the wee hours of the night to hit a deadline. I'll give up at a certain point. I need my sleep. And you know what? Its never turned out awfully for me. So I'm going to keep doing it. 


J is for current favorite jam: Everybody Talks by the Neon Trees. It's on a commercial during all of the March Madness games and I just dance every single time I hear it. Or blackberry, if you're into that kind of question.


K is for kids: None, thank you very much. I don't have time for kids. ;)


L is for current location: Philadelphia! One of the coolest places in the world. I'm in my apartment in Center City at the moment.


M is for the most recent way you spent money: I bought dinner at work last night. A falafel pita sandwich. It was delicious and a good use of my money.


N is for something you need: A couple more hours to do my homework. Just one or two!


O is for occupation: I'm a Kinesiology/Theater student. That takes up quite a bit of time. I also work at Rita's! And I got an internship for the summer! WOOO!


P is for pet peeve: When people are ignorant. Or when they kiss when I'm talking to them. That's really annoying.


Q is for a quote: "All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent." -Marilyn Monroe. Any talent will do. I just want to be valued for my personality and the work that I do. :)


R is for random fact about you: I love Life is Beautiful and will watch it all the time. Sometimes people won't watch it because it will put them in a bad mood. But I'll watch it for the amazing ending, regardless of the insane hardships during it. I love it, I love it, I love it!

S is for favorite healthy snack: Hummus. And anything dipped in it. I'll eat it endlessly. Or fruit. I really love all sorts of fruit.

T is for favorite treat: Cookies!


U is for something that makes you unique: I don't really know about this one. Obviously my personality makes me unique. But I feel like that's a boring answer. Lame.

V is for favorite vegetable: I really like Red Peppers!

W is for today’s workout: Hours of dancing. I know I really shouldn't run four miles before that. But I really want to. So I don't know what I'm going to do about that.

X is for X-rays you’ve had: I've had an x-ray of my arm, I know that. And my stomach I believe. I dunno. Random ones. Lots of teeth ones. Blah.
 
Y is for yesterday’s highlight: My tip money. Haha. No but I had breakfast with Casey because she was in town and it was really lovely!

Z is for your time zone: East Coast hooray!

Let me know if you fill it out for yourself and I'll learn about you too! :)

Friday, March 16, 2012

Funky

There are some days when you wake up in such a funk, you just want to sit by yourself all day. That's the kind of day I'm having. I don't have one single clue as to why I would feel this way, but that's the way I'm feeling.

I woke up and put on a green shirt and green shoes to try to work some magic: no dice. I made myself oatmeal with mashed banana and peanut butter: still not getting any. I've been writing "be happy" and other positive notes in class today: nada.

WHAT IS GOING ON!?

Blah. Workout wise, this week has been quite productive. Wednesday consisted of dancing, which is always great. Yesterday had even more dancing and some strength training. Also racquetball! I was nice and sweaty for my night class, so I'm sure everybody is a fan. I was supposed to run two miles as well, but I got home and was absolutely exhausted, so I pushed that today.

TECHNICALLY today is a rest day. But I need a pick me up. And even though it isn't nice, sunny running weather. Two miles will hopefully do the trick.

If you're like me and need some happy, I went and typed "happy" into Pinterest and so hopefully this will cheer things right up.


I do like cheese.

A POMSKY!

This looks like it would make me happy.

Pixar + Cupcakes = JOY

They look pretty enthused about life.

And lastly, I won't forget.

:)

Happy St. Patrick's Day! And GOOOOOOOOOO OWLS!

Is it lame to get the Friday blues? What makes you happy?

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

I Won't Quit, Cuz I Want More

 
You probably know this. I am not ashamed.

I'M BAAAAAACK!

So today I rolled out of bed without making my boyfriend pancakes, which I had promised ever-so-sweetly to do. That was before I fell asleep in my comfy bed and actually slept through the night. So I did NOT wake up at seven thirty. And I'm not sorry about it, because if he really wanted pancakes he could have made them.

So there.

Instead I sent him this picture because he never gets to see me looking like this and it makes him think I am the most attractive girlfriend in the whole wide world.

My first sweaty picture. How precious!

You see? I think it's very good. To get to that state, I started my morning off with some banana peanut butter toast that was actually melty and delicious and got to work. As I said last night, I was planning on doing one of Fitnessista's workouts, but I saw an ab circuit from She Rocks Fitness on Bess Be Fit this morning that I decided to give a go. And it kicked my butt abs. I didn't use all of the equipment because I didn't want to get gross germs anywhere downstairs so I modified and still felt the burn. Trust me on that.

Then somehow I ended up here.

I was waiting to cross the street and realized I didn't take a picture.

I love being able to run to cliché places in Philadelphia. Love it with my whole entire heart.

A three mile run was on the agenda and that's precisely what I did. I did not go fast, but I got it done. And, to me, that's what counts at this point. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to do it. But I got it done and got a beautiful prize at the end. Some people were Rocky-ing it up the stairs, but I had to get back to my apartment to shower before class. Which is incredibly overrated.

So in conclusion: beautiful and productive day. And it's still sunny outside. Thank you very much. :)

Did you have a sunny day today?

Monday, March 12, 2012

Till The World Ends

I will keep on dancing that long. Or at least that's what it feels like right now. It also feels like my head is going to explode, but that doesn't mean I'm going to slow down! Everything I read seems to say that if the sickness/allergies/bothersome feelings reside above the throat/lungs you're good to go. So I'm good to go. Especially after missing a week of training. I'm not backing down!

Yesterday called for thirty minutes of cross training. I danced for five hours. I think that counts! Today was stretching and strengthening. I went to dance tonight and planned to do some work back in my apartment gym, but my feeling bad is not having it. So I'm not skipping it and I'm pushing it until tomorrow!

NOW! A look at the week ahead!

Tuesday: Three mile run and leftover strength from today! I'm planning on using Fitnessista's Schweaty March workout to get my heart rate pumping. :)
Wednesday: 35 minutes cross training-I think I'm going to try to fit in a spin class, otherwise I'll just be on the bike at the gym! I also have some dance and am reviewing with other people so there's lots of dance on the plate too!
Thursday: 2 miles and strength training. I have yet to decide what I want to do, but hopefully it'll still be beautiful enough to run outside!
Friday: REST.
Saturday: Run for four miles! Hopefully outside again.

So that's that! Keep dancing!

What do you do when you're feeling a tad under the weather?


Friday, March 9, 2012

When Can it be Spring?

Weather is such a tease, don't you think? You look outside your window at the beautiful sun and then you actually walk outside and get attacked by wind set out to ruin your warmth. Mother Nature, please get your act together.

Looks like she actually might be listening.

Sorry for the lack of posting, millions of blog followers which I'm sure I have somewhere. There was family stuff that needed to be taken care of, and that will always come before this blog. :)

But my Spring Break is over for me because I'm going to be back at work in an hour or so. So now it's back to the blog! Back to the blog in a freshly Spring-cleaned apartment, I might add. I'm putting off laundry for another two days because I found clean underwear. My priorities are the straightest I know.

So, as I've said before, March is National Nutrition Month. My next step to being more nutrition-oriented is to tackle smart grocery shopping. This requires both fresh, natural ingredients and healthy choices as opposed to stacking more Cap'n Crunch on top of my fridge.

I've browsed the Whole Foods blog before, but now I actually want to do something about it. I also have a couple of things I want to try, so we'll see how that turns out as well. And of course, I'll let you know. Because I won't have anything better to do now that I'm back at school, right? Right.

Tomorrow I'm tackling three miles (I know, a whopping three to those hardcore runners out there) and getting back on track with my training. I haven't found the ability to balance training and important family times, and I just felt that I legitimately had more important things to do.

But that just means I have to come back harder! So I'll leave you with some fitspiration. :)

If this isn't inspiration, I dunno what is. LOOK AT THOSE LEGS!

I found this today from Bess over at Bess Be Fit. She does a Fitspiration Friday every week, and I love looking through them and seeing how great the human body is. Because I appreciate it. But definitely go visit her blog if you want to take a look for yourself!

What is YOUR inspiration?

Friday, March 2, 2012

Happy March!

Pinterest. Duh. But I'm sure this is everywhere.

 Hooray! This year is progressing along quite nicely, if I do say so myself. I certainly hope this month does not disappoint, though following February gives it crazy high standards. As long as the weather works with me, I think we'll get along quite nicely?

Isn't there a thing about in like a lion out like a lamb for March? Who knows.

Speaking of March, Happy National Nutrition Month!!

I know, I'm a nerd. But I got really excited about it. For the whole month of March I am going to be entering my eats onto MyFitnessPal and seeing how things are going! I really don't want to lose any weight, I'm just curious as to how the things I eat stack up, you know? So far it's made me drink more water and cut the snacking, which is kind of awesome!

Another thing I'm doing in honor of this month is to go talk to a nutritionist. Because I'm starting this whole running thing and I tend to not eat when I get too stressed, I thought I'd talk to somebody about it and make sure I'm getting the nourishment I need!

BECAUSE NUTRITION IS AWESOME, OKAY!?

I would love to come home to these. Love.

Onto the running front now! Yesterday I played some racquetball and then had two miles on the schedule. I know technically racquetball isn't a strength workout, but because my days were all messed up, I decided to give my muscles a little break.

The run. Oh, the run.

I had absolutely zero motivation to go on this run. It was dark outside, so that meant another tedious session of me staring longingly at the numbers, hoping they would increase just a little faster. Dinner was in the oven and I could smell it's deliciousness creeping through our apartment.

I JUST DID NOT WANT TO RUN!

But alas. I threw on some workout-type clothes and ran downstairs.

It was this shirt. So it would match my face, you know?

Alright. I read running blogs fairly regularly. I love hearing about peoples' times, how they felt, what they ate, etc. And for the most part I read them and it goes something like this:

"I didn't want to do eight miles but I did anyway....it was great!!...The first mile sucked...But the rest were awesome!"

Guys, what if I can't run ten miles? Two miles and I was STRUGGLING. I just felt awful and I couldn't breathe right and it just was not my night. I felt like such a failure and was seriously doubting ever being able to run ten miles. I keep telling myself that it's just the mentality of staring at the wall on the treadmill but I don't know, man.

But I did it anyway. Just so I could cross it off. Then I came back upstairs and ate delicious ziti. And that was that.

LAME.

Something not lame? Spring Break. I wish I were going somewhere nice and warm, but catching up on sleep might actually be in the forecast for me. I approve of this message.

How do I fix this little running problem I have here? Or how are you celebrating Spring Break?