I'm still alive!

Man, I feel bad that I haven’t given any TLC to my blog in a year?? Geez, that’s my fault. I haven’t been inspired and life has given me some interesting turns in the road to prevent me from letting things out on here.

First off I’m going through some life changes. I bought a new (used) car in April. Yaaay! It’s a 2013 Maxda CX-5; charcoal grey, low mileage, and great mpg. I’ve named my car Cole. I don’t know if you get it but it could be also spelled another way (…give up? Coal? Cole? Ba-tum-tiss!) I’ve had a 2000 Mazda 626 for a long time but after having to commute for the past 3 and a half years has taken a toll on me and the car. The 626 started to show signs of deterioration while my trust in keeping me safe whilst driving was diminishing. I decided that it was time to move onto something better (and bigger?). I had money saved up for a decent down payment for the CX-5 as I bought it on sale too! I didn’t know that I could afford a new-ish car, and looking back at the purchase I realize that I worked my ass off to get to sign those papers. The years of education and pondering about my decisions has accumulated to that moment.

It's so satisfying to announce the CX-5 as "my" car

With having a new clean car to start over with the timing was perfect as I started to purge and reorganize my life. Believe it or not the whole purging and reorganizing started in my room. Since losing some weight and realizing there was clothing that I don’t care for I started filling up this giant plastic bag from the Olympia Expo. One of the handles broke as I getting the damn bag out of the house and into my car to drop off at Savers (it’s a thrift store by Hope Services). From then on I have been organizing my paper clutter, clothing clutter, and even my pantry. I was heavily influenced by YouTubers who are considered as organizational “gurus.” I bought items from Bed Bath and Beyond, Dollar Tree, and the Container Store to get all my crap organized. Honestly, it’s been such a cleansing and refreshing experience. The statement of “less is more” is very relevant at this point in my life.

 I took an over-the-door shoe organizer with clear pockets and stored my scarves and belts

Going on with the whole “less is more” concept in my head, I will be taking the next year off from Athletic Training. I have 10 days, well more like 8 days if I exclude the weekend, left of my five year career at Monta Vista. I love my job, don’t get me wrong, I know I’m good at what I do but I’ve been inspired to push myself to be not only good but better. Then how do I get better and become greater? I’ve realized I want to see where my potential will take me. So I will be taking a couple classes over the next year to see what kind of tools I can keep adding to my manual therapy box. I plan on taking a pre-natal/pregnancy massage and Active Release Technique classes within the end of this calendar year. I’m not sure what else I wanna take but I’m curious to see what else is going to be out there.

I know I’m making a sacrifice to my income. Some or all of you may know that I work two jobs. Since I’m quitting one I’m reducing my income. However, because my clientele is growing at Athlete’s Advantage I feel like I’m making a good decision. I want to expand my clientele as my skills grow. I’m not sure how long I’ll be at AA but I want to be there as long as I can until it’s time to see where to go from there. What I love about AA is being able to customize my client’s sessions. There are times when my regulars have specific points that need attention or if they just had a really long month or week they just want a relaxing session. I love being able to provide the service for them because the results show on their faces and posture.  I know I don’t have a career in athletic training, but you know what I have a set of skills that I can apply to anything and anywhere I choose. There in lies the beauty of my timing. I’m extremely grateful and blessed to be able to make such a sacrifice. I’m leaving Monta Vista on a good note, I’m leaving a legacy behind but I want someone else to sharpen their skills to make their own legacy there. I only hope that the next ATC will become as good, or better than me as August comes around. I’m going to be cliché and say that I’m quietly closing the door from Monta Vista and opening another door then walking through it with my eyes closed.

My fitness life has been progressing quite well with some setbacks here and there. Life isn’t successful if you don’t fail. I’ve been counting my macronutrients and training with the 5-3-1 program with Jon’s guidance. Yesterday I managed to max 1-rep on squats with 225lbs! I don’t know if I want to count it as a success because I almost lost it and my toes came off the ground. The fact that I tried and did it was gratifying enough. Today I max repped on bench 130lbs! To know that I am strong at 5’3 and 177 pounds is a great feeling. Plus I’m slowly losing fat and my muscles are becoming more and more defined. A humungous thank you to Jon for helping me during the extremely low times I've been battling since beginning this fitness journey. You help me shake the crap off and keep going because the only thing that can stop me is myself. Thank you for making sure I don't hit the ground when I fall. I love you! 

Here's proof that I could lift hella. Thanks to Clay for filming this! 

I think I covered as much ground as I could in this entry. I hope you enjoyed reading it! Who knows, since I can make more time now I could blog at least once or twice a week. We'll see. Thank you for your support! 

- Marie

P.S. I don't know how you all feel about this but I've been doing a lot of fun-reading lately and would love to share them with you. So here's this month's Book of the Moment: 

 All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Another Year Older

March is coming soon and I need to write a post. As a life update here's what's going on: I turned 27 on the 19th, I decided that May 31st is my last and final day as a high school athletic trainer, I may be moving again in May with my roommate, I'm going to be in Europe in April with 2 of my besties from college, Jonathan and I are planning a couple trips later this year, and I really like my new job at The Athlete's Advantage. The commute could be better but that's a different conversation. I've been working a lot lately, in a way that's good since my clientele is increasing. At the hs things are slowly transitioning into the spring sports which will allow me to be done with the work day earlier. So as soon as my contract expires at the high school I'll be working full time at Athlete's Advantage (referred to as AA from now on.... awk).

This month I wanted to see if I could count my macronutrients. I figured out that it was a bad month to start because 1) I didn't have a food scale, 2) It's my birthday month so measuring things wasn't gonna go well or accurately enough. Sigh. So the month of March needs to be on track, and I need to be diligent. Jonathan's been guiding me with counting and measuring to make sure I was doing this counting macro's thing correctly.

I've increased my workouts to 4x/week. Well, 5x/week if you want to include a day of cardio. My workouts look like this:
Monday- Legs (push)
Tuesday- Arms (pull)
Wednesday- Cardio/HIIT workout
Thursday- Legs (pull)
Friday- Arms (push)

It's just about that time to change up my workouts since I feel like I'm getting a little bored/not as challenged with my workouts in the past.

Jonathan is having another photoshoot next weekend! He wants to see differences from June of last year to this one. He's been working his ass off... well kinda literally. I don't know how many of you know but he wants to compete someday. He really looks up to his idols and wants to be on stage with them one day. Please support him as much you can! I know he posts nothing but fitness related topics but this is his greatest passion. I'm sure his photoshoot will be awesome and the pictures will show the amount of hard work he has made since June... actually, ever since he started. I'm extremely proud of him, and very inspirational. I for one am still trying to come to terms with looking at myself in the mirror and seeing something that I admire (always a work in progress...). It's funny to catch him checking himself out in glass reflections or in the mirror (sometimes I wonder why he takes a little longer to get ready for the day, turns out he's just checking himself out in the mirror :P ) Anyway, Jonathan plans to compete in a show when he turns 30. Cross your fingers and toes for him please!

Be well and healthy!

Best,
Marie

Potholes and Patches

 Lately I've been contemplating about what I've been doing with my life. Not so much that I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, more like how am I preparing for my future. Sure I may be on the right path and really know my strengths and weaknesses. But how sure am I about those things? I honestly, don't know. My greatest weakness is putting others before me, and knowing how to be selfish without the guilt. I work in a field where I put my athletes and clients first. Then worry about myself after I close the door and walk to my car. Ever since identifying this issue prioritizing has been a challenge. I could say that I've made some progress but there's always room for more improvement. I know what my strengths are: I listen to others pretty well, I am understanding, patient, affable, and I work really well with my hands. My hands are my prized possessions. I did wonder if there's a way to insure them... Jokingly. I'm sure there's a way but that's not my priority right now.I'm trying my best to be more aware of myself and trying to figure things out.  I need to take care of myself to be happy. Maybe I am happy and don't know it. Maybe I just need to stop living in the future and live in the moment, living in the now so to speak. I have a bad tendency to be way over my head and not realize what the hell I'm doing in the present. Not having awareness in my present is a terrible feeling. I open my eyes and ask, "how far did I drive?" without knowing if I zoned out or just left my presence temporarily (luckily, I was driving in smooth traffic).
 
 I am nervous about making decisions for my future... I know one thing for sure that I can't wait to have a future with Jonathan. Outside of that I have no idea what I'll be doing. I asked myself tonight "In 5 years what do you think you'll be doing?" as if I'm interviewing myself. My answer: the hell if I knew. I wish I knew how to answer that but I don't. Oh well. I have other things to take care besides worrying about my future. For instance, maintaining this blog.

 So my fitness lifestyle is going well but at the same time I have slumps. This week has been interesting, there were times where I didn't feel like working out or I ate a whole giant bag of Pirate's Booty just because I have no motivation to eat clean or what have you. I don't know, maybe it's this work week on top of last week, I have never been this overwhelmed with Winter season sports before, it's chaotic and discombobulating. Despite my stressful week and a half I'm still getting my ass into the weight room to workout. Yesterday (Tuesday) I challenged myself and managed to do a working set of 3x8reps of 135lbs squats! I thought I was going to have a rough time but I did it!  Yay! That motivated me to stop snacking on shit, get my act together, and eat real food. Now that February is coming up soon I may start measuring my macronutrients and eat according to my goals. I won't call it dieting because I'm eating, not starving myself. My other goal for this year is to do cardio at least 2x/week. Cardio would mean HIIT workouts that last about 20-30min depending on exercises and how many rounds I feel like going. Hopefully I can take some more progress shots soon. I don't have a mirror in my room but there is one in my bathroom with interesting lighting so we'll see. I will say that my arms and shoulders are becoming more and more sculpted. I feel like my limbs and back are getting stronger/sculpted/toned but my mid-section is just lagging. Sigh... I mean it's smaller than it used to be but it's one of those things that is so difficult to work on.

 Anyway, thought I'd share my random thoughts and life "issues" that are occurring but I remind myself to be thankful everyday for a job, a roof over my head, food to eat, to be loved by someone, and to love someone. I hope you're all having a good week! And pray that it'll rain for a good amount of time, the Bay Area needs it big time.

Be healthy!
- Marie