Every Gym’s Nightmare

Hey guys! As you know, well, assuming you read this often, which I’m assuming you do because it makes me feel good about myself, I’ve been taking some time off from EGN, but I promise I’ll get to all of your Q and A’s as soon as I can.

The main reason for the hiatus is my move coming up (Dec 16th- woot!) into a big ol’ house with two friends of mine. Amidst the stress has emerged a little ray of sunshine: I was asked to inform you all about the Myspace/Walmart holiday guide widget, for which I will get a $100 gift card to Walmart. Woot!

As you know, I normally don’t do this stuff on here, but I am moving, which is expensive, so cut me some slack. At least I’m telling you up front- that should earn me some karma points back.

So here it is: Myspace teamed up with Walmart and produced The Holiday Wishlist- a widget where you can choose some of your greedy little wants for Christmas, and add them to a list which is then added to your profile, so all your Myspace friends can see what you want for Christmas or whatever you happen to celebrate.

To be honest, I haven’t used my Myspace in literally about a year, but when I signed in to add the widget to my profile, I was pretty surprised how many people still use it on the regular. I have been missing out, apparently.

Not surprisingly, my wishlist is mostly all electronics, but its a wishlist, right? If someone who loved me very much happened to stumble upon it and buy me something shiny and metal, it would be fine, because I didn’t technically ask them for something so expensive. And Walmart’s about the cheapest you can find of that stuff, so its really like I’m doing them a favor.

In reality, the actual gift card I get for all this hard work I’m putting in right now this will go towards necessities, like toilet paper, dishwasher soap (I’m going to have a dishwasher!) and a chew toy to keep Porkchop from eating the little Chihuahua that will also be living with us. For their prices, though, I’m sure I can find something fun to toss into the mix for me, too.

Hope everyone had a great holiday, and I’ll be back after things calm down a bit to answer the back log of questions you guys are waiting on. Thanks for being patient! It’s a virtue!

www.nataliedee.com

Im 23 today, so Im taking the day off! Back tomorrow with more Q and A’s!

Also, Im an idiot and accidentally deleted all the comments from the previous post. Sorry

I reviewed The Skinny on Willpower book on Twirlit.com, and so the company sent me a new Skinny On book, The Skinny on Success, Why not You? I really like these books for a lot of reasons. One- they are super easy reads put in a comic book style format so you can breeze right through them (I read this one in 2 cardio sessions). Two- they are funny. Little stick figure Jim Randel (the author) pops up into other stick figures’ lives offering advice based on their issues and the topic of the book, much to their surprise and often annoyance. Its corny but it knows its corny so its endearing. Three- they aren’t preachy. They are basically self help books, but they offer strategies and real advice as opposed to just telling you “you can do it!” “believe in yourself!” This book is real: it tells you the road to success is going to be hard, you are going to fail a lot and its going to take a ton of work- but it’ll be worth it.

I liked The Skinny on Willpower and gave it a good review. I LOVED The Skinny on Success, though, for two huge reasons: it gave me validation and it gave me an epiphany.

The book follows a couple, Billy and Beth, both on their route to success. Billy, a cocky stick figure, hates his accounting job and wants to be a comedian. He is over confident and convinced he has the talent, and that his success will just come- with no work. Jim Randel, his new neighbor, pops up to talk some sense into him. Jim tries to get it through to him that success is about 5% talent and 95% persistence, dedication and practice. Beth, the other half of the couple, is the opposite. She runs for a seat in local politics, and loses. She is under confident and scared to run again. Jim tries to get it through to her that you have to fail in order to reach success and that many of the people that seem to be overnight successes have actually been working and failing for years. It offers real-life examples, including President Obama, Steve Martin, Jay Leno, and gives your real strategies to use on your own journey.

So here are where my 2 huge take aways come in.

There is one section of the book that talks about actually deciding what you want to do with your life, and asks a few questions:

What are you doing when you lose track of time during the day?
What are you doing when you feel energized?
What are you doing when you can focus for long periods of time?

These questions solidified that I am indeed doing what I love in life for a living. I lose track of time at work and can focus and feel energized when I write and when I work out. Fitness, writing (and fitness writing) are my career, and its what I love doing. It just validated for me that I am on the right track and that I am indeed happy, as well as lucky that I was able to figure it out so young. I hear people all day long complain about having to go to work, or how slow the clock moves- most of the time I run over during sessions because I lose track or will be at home plugging away on some articles, look up and its 3 hours later. Sometimes when I have a good article idea, I can’t wait to get home and get started on it. I love what I do.

The second takeaway is the biggest one, and I’m not even sure if I am going to be able to explain it properly. I am 22 (23 at the end of the month) and have already achieved so many things in my career. I’ve been published in magazines, write for successful websites, have an AMAZING opportunity to work with a fitness company that is going to send me all over the world (yeah, I haven’t told you about that yet, but I will when the ink is dry- you might even be able to come with me!) but I’m never satisfied. Whenever I land a huge contract, I am content for maybe, 5 minutes, and then want more. I continue to send out letters, use my contacts, search craigslist, etc- I always want something bigger and better. I’ve always been torn between whether or not this is a bad thing. I could never figure out if this is me being selfish, or ungrateful, or if this is me being motivated and driven. I go back and forth. I always wonder if I ever will be comfortable, or content, or ever be able to just relax and work within what I have and be thankful for it, or if I will always be…restless. This doesn’t mean I take jobs and then soon move on, I am a very loyal worker, but I always want something bigger and better to work towards, and am always pushing for it.

There was a certain section in the book that talks about personality traits of the biggest success stories, and this one stuck out to me:

“Are you someone with a “rage to master?” Do you have a burning desire to succeed? Do you want to be the best of the best at what you do? Some people are quite happy stepping off the ladder of success after just a few rungs. Others won’t be happy until they reach the top.”

This is me. I’m not ungrateful or dissatisfied with my work, I just love it and want to do more of it on a bigger greater scale. I have a rage to master. Everyone knows the internet, and especially blogging and writing, is an avenue for people to get “famous” and gather a cult-like following for doing barely anything of value, but I don’t want that. I just want to share what I know, and if it can help people, I’m happy. The bigger of an audience I reach, the better my chances of helping, and that’s why I am restless.

This book is one I’m going to check back to often. Its already dog-eared and written in, and I’ve only read it once. I want my own little Jim Randel to follow me around and give me helpful tidbits of info when I’m in a bad spot, or help me rationalize things instead of just reacting. Who knows, maybe one day if I keep plugging away, he’ll ask me to help him write a Skinny on Fitness book. But if not, no worries, I’ll take the rejection and move on, because that is what success is all about.

GIVEAWAYS!

Leapfrog Tag Reading System
Three Custom Color Makeup

Holy crap. Why is everyone on the internet so angry? You would not believe the comments we have to put up with as bloggers and writers online (well, unless you experience it as well.) Or if you are one of the people that does it.

I refuse to put up with them anymore and I’m starting with this one.

I LOVE when people disagree with me, but accusing me of having sex with animals is probably a liiiiiittle out of line. For a product review!

Most bloggers keep quiet, which is probably the best policy, but I’ve never been good at that.

www.marriedtothesea.com

Well, more like Doomsweek.

My knee has been hurting, ya’ll know that. My ankle stared hurting a few days ago, too. I ignored it, because I thought I slept with it wrapped up in my blanket or something, but now its all tight like i sprained it (but I dont remember doing anything to it at all.) Now, my back is killing me.

Last night, Jerome, while expertly dodging my guilt tripping tactics to try and weasle a back rub out of him (I really did need it though) suggested I should take some time of lifting. I considered it for half a second, and then brushed it off.

Today I did upper body, and as I was driving home, my back ceased up on me. I can barely move, and Im super pissed, so it looks like no lifting for me, for 7 days. No strength training whatsoever, which is going to be really hard.

I will still cardio, but only light stuff: walking and the bike.

Bright side, I will use this as an opportunity to work on flexibility.

I give it 3 days before I start ripping people’s heads off. Place your bets, folks.

This is my own personal hell.

www.toothpastefordinner.com

I mentioned yesterday that I since I have been working from home, I’ve had a lot more time to workout, and thus I have been working out a lot more. Make sense, right?

I mentioned 2 a day workouts, which doesn’t actually mean I am working out twice a day. Well, sometimes, but usually not. I mean I am doing two workouts in one day, usually back to back- which means cardio then upper body, then the next day cardio, and lower body. Its awesome. I love it. I can already see changes and feel like my workouts are something I can take my time with, and enjoy instead just trying to cram it in inbetween shifts.

The only problem is, I don’t have any goals yet, and I can’t think of any. I don’t want anything with weight, because I don’t want to lose weight, and I don’t want to focus on body fat because that will happen naturally, so I’m thinking I should set some strength goals. I want to build more muscle (I have a feeling I’m going to end up looking like a pro wrestler soon) but the problem with that is I don’t really keep track of that stuff. Maybe I should keep track. If I did, I would keep track on here, and I dont know if you guys would be bored with that stuff.

Are you interested in seeing my workouts/weight progressions?

Gah- I have to do a “photo shoot” this weekend. I wrote an article for Breathe Magazine’s Winter Issue about how to train for ski season and was asked to be in the pictures. Think I can officially add “fitness model” to my resume?

LINKS:

You On a Diet listed their top 34 weight loss blogs, and EGN was included. Thanks!!

Why I Think the Kelly Clarkson Airbrushing Outrage is a Good Thing

Healthy Foods That Aren’t: Gorcery Store Addition

Runner’s High: Is it Real?

Ruby Reminds Us of the Dangers of Food Pushers

Sonoma Crisps Giveaway!

Michelle Obama Shorts (I didnt write this one but I think the comments are hilarious)

For real this time.

Remember the days where I would blog everyday, dutifully, and if I didn’t it was because i was broken or sick or kidnapped?

And then remember when got all slackery and disappeared and would come back every once in a while to appologize, give you links to other places and then disappear again?

Yeah, well, here’s why:

BIG Changes: If you’ve been reading, I was worrying about my job situtation for a while. And like life often does, when things are the worst, it brings out the best. I used that fear to fuel me to make a change and do what I really want to do: write. So I devoted all my internet energy to emails and samples and follow ups and interviews and scored some awesome, stable writing gigs. The down side was there was no time or energy left for the blog. So now, I still train in the mornings, but the rest of the day is in front of my computer writing, writing, writing, napping, eating, working out, napping.

Horrible Time Management Skills: When I decided I would work from home, I had the best of intentions of actually working for hours at a time. Turns out, that’s hard to do when you have a dog, sunshine, a TV, facebook, and are halfway through the Twilight series.

I Got Pissed at the Blogosphere: I got SO SICK of spending my time looking at people take self portraits of themselves eating the same crappy bowl of oatmeal every morning. or the same glass of green juice. I know people love this, and obviously it is wildly popular to look at what other people are eating, or modelling their new workout gear, or taking any opportunity to take a picture of themself and splatter it all over the internet to have people comment on how awesometheyare/howgreattheylook/wantingtoknowwhatkindoftoiletpapertheywipetheirasseswith. I am obviously in the minority, but I like to spend my time looking at things that add to my life. If a blog can teach me something, spread awareness about something important, show me a different way of thinking or challenge me intellectually, Im all for it. I love that shit. I felt like i spent more and more of my time wading through the same blog over and over again under a different name to find those gems. And they are out there. But they are definately few and far between.

But now I’m back, and here’s why:

I Missed You Guys: Yeah, pretty much none of you guys followed my anywhere, even though I linked my little heart out, so you were sorely missed. I also miss reading your comments and your own blogs, which I honestly started to lose track of when I didnt have your links staring me in the face. I know everyone says this but i think I have pretty awesome readers: you dont yell at me for swearing, find my stupid humor mildly amusing, challenge me when you think Im wrong in a respectful way, and ask thought provoking questions/leave thought provoking comments. And that’s not BS.

If Something Makes you Mad, Do Something About it: I have a tendency to bitch without doing anything about it. I’ve posted pictures of myself occassionally, and after repeated requests, delved a little further into my personal life for you guys, but it never lasted long because 1) I think Im boring and 2) Im not comfortable being so narcissistic. I have a lot of knowledge to share that a lot of people are interested in and can benefit from and I would rather give everyone something they can take with them and apply in life: in their workouts, in the way they view themselves, and in the way they see other people. I would rather help in any small way i can instead of making you stare at my shit eating grin while i hold up my latest vegetable purchase.

Better at Scheduling: I realized i am very lucky to be able to work from my home. I also realized that I am an extremely anxious person and having work hanging over my head while I try and relax isn’t very relaxing. So I bust my ass a few hours in the morning and then spend the rest of my day doing things I was never able to do before: go for a walk in the middle of the day, do 2-a-day workouts (more on my new hard-core workout schedule later) read, cook things with more than 2 ingredients, and chip away at my BIG CHORE LIST. I honestly have that life balance thing I’ve always heard so much about. And I couldnt be happier. I have more time to devote to the things i love, and I love EGN.

MY LINKS:

Im hosting a giveaway on Kidglue.com- check it out!

Coke Is Making Carbonated Milk

Adorable Miss Ruby Reminds Us of the Dangers of Food Pushers

The Dangers of Competitive Eating

Are You Slowing Down Your Own Metabolism?

Funny how when you are being a whiny brat things come a long that snap you out of it. Which was my plan all along! Or atleast that’s my excuse.

I just had an awesome workout that cleared my head and got me out of the house a bit, but even better, not one, but 2 opportunities just came my way, in the course of literally an hour, brightening my day considerably. Things are looking up.

Also, Ashley reminded me that instead of whining and being crappy I should take it upon myself to make me feel better, which is what Im going to do. i really need to work on remembering that life isn;t just about work, and then recouperating after work. I need to have fun, and do new things and make memories. I have the whole day off, so I am going to do something just for me with my free time. I’m not sure what, but it is NOT going to be writing/networking related (which is usually what I do with free time- like I said, work rules my life) and it also can’t cost money, because, well, that was the cause of my crappy mood in the first place.

Any ideas?

I had ONE session this morning, at 7:30 am, and now I can’t get back to sleep. Bleh.

So, since I’ve been back for a while, and posting regulalry again (althought, slacking majorly on the comments- but I’m still reading everyone of you guys, I promise) I thought I would make some announcements.

I’ve been writing a TON lately, and I really missed it. Writing is a hard job- its tough being creative, or even moderately interesting, under a deadline. People think freelancing is all Wi-Fi from Starbucks and lounging in bunny slippers, but its pretty much constant emails with editors, readers, and sponsors, proofreading, networking, and being told to “stop swearing.” But, that’s what I love about it, and I never ever (even though I would be open to it) write about anything other than Health and Fitness, my passion, so it’s always enjoyable.

Incase you haven’t heard, I am currently writing about 4 times a week for www.Twirlit.com as their Health and Fitness Expert. I am in contact with a ton of comapnies to start doing healthy snack and fitness equipment reviews and giveaways once a week, so be prepared to enter when I email you. If you’ve never recieved email giveaway announcements from me, email me your email address at kelly@everygymsnightmare.com and I’ll put you at the top of the list.

I am also writing for Fitness Friday at Breathe.com. These, hence the name, are every Friday, so be on the lookout for those.

Or to not have to remember, follow me on Twitter because I always post the links there.

There is a new site I am writing for that is set to launch soon as well- Ill keep you posted on that one, but its going to be really cool.

The other thing about freelancing is you have to constantly be on the prowl for new gigs since your job is never ever secure.

If any of you need any content, for your site, your business, for copy, or anything else, don’t hesistate to email- I am always looking for more jobs. Blogs are huge in promoting a business but many businesses don’t have time to devote to a blog, which is where I come in. Let the pros handle it

A Crossfit opened near my house, and I am resisting the urge to run over their right now and join. I saw them flipping tractor tires the other day. WHY OH WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE? I could go old school and do my own Crossfit in my backyard, but where is the fun in that? I tried sneakily to offer to write a review of them for Twirlit in exchange for a few classes, but haven’t heard anything back yet.

Also- Shape Magazine emailed me the other day!!! I almost peed myself. THEY emailed ME asking how long I have been blogging. I answered and haven’t heard anything back. Now I can’t stop wondeirng what they want and have to resist emailing incessantly to get a response. Its worse than waiting for a boy to call. The curiousity is killing me. How awesome would it be to write for Shape!? They don’t have any blogs either. Let’s all write emails petitioning me to be their Fitness Blogger. I don’t know where you could send them, but write them in your head and send them off into the atmosphere where Oprah says all things are possible.

That’s just how excited I am- I’m willing try anything, even what Oprah tells me to do.

Speaking of which, I’m wiritng a peice on wether celebs like Oprah are motivating because they are real women who fail, or whether is discouraging that even people with every resource at their disposal can’t keep the weight off. Thoughts? If I like your comment, I’ll quote you in the peice.

Its Saturday and Im up way too early. Seems like the later I go to bed, the earlier I wake up, which is fine because I have some writing deadlines to make. But, of course, that means Im blogging here instead. Go figure.

I can’t decide if i should rehash everything that happened over my long hiatus, or not. Not that anything really happened. As far as my workouts go, I’ve been doing a lot more cardio and tracking my miles. I’m averaging around 20 miles a week, and would like to bump it up to 25. It takes A LOT of time out of the day, but thankfully waking up at 4:30 am for work every morning adds quite a few hours.

Jerome had his retest and is probably due for another one. He gained some inches all over and is happy with his results so far. I would take a follow up picture, but my camera is broken :(. We are still working out together regularly and I can say he is officially hooked.

The gymnastics coaching thing never came to a head. I couldn’t get the owner to call me back, but then work picked up a ton, so I let it slide because I didn’t want to add to much to my plate. Its one of those things where if she calls, I’ll do it, but Im not going to push at the moment.

Ok, Im just stalling. Im going to go comment now, something I haven’t done in AGES, and then actually get some work done.

Come Play With Me

Anybody going to the Seattle Health and Fitness Expo on June 25th and 26th? Right before the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon? I want to go, but not by myself. If so, hit me up!

Bits and Pieces

If you have a health and fitness question, email them to me at kelly@everygymsnightmare.com

Follow me on Twitter!