Crack that whip!

My biggest blog inspiration has been found in a friend of a friend. We met once a long time ago when her oldest child was probably still in diapers and I don't think I've seen her since. Through the lovely Facebook community I found her blog and I swear, that although we may never meet in person again, we are like two of the very same, yet very different sort of people. Does that make sense?

Heather, who writes the blog "alis grave nil," is an English teacher, a wife, a mother of two and I am sure many other things that I am far from being. Although I had an A.P. English teacher my senior year who I LOVED and I still to this day love to read books (Steinbeck is my fave), I was never a fan of English class. But you know what? If I had Heather as an English teacher, I am pretty sure I would think she kicked ass.

But even with our differences, we are both women and with that title we carry some burdens and struggles that only certain other women can understand. In that way, I often read her blog and think maybe I accidentally stumbled on my own post that I wrote in the middle of the night and forgot about.

Her latest post about summertime goals is one of those posts.

And since finding out her post is NOT actually my post, I've gotta do my own.

My biggest goal is running - I need to get back into it. The problem is I've been out of it so long that I can't run my typical 3-4 miles anymore. For that reason I feel like a failure if I manage 1.5 miles and sometimes that's enough to not make me even want to do it. However, I've reminded myself that I've got to start somewhere and I better just be more careful about falling off the wagon again - namely, don't do it.  So here's to getting back to where I was.. on so many levels.

Inaugural Women's Fitness Festival - 2005?

My other goals include:

• Being more thoughtful of what I put in my mouth. It's definitely true that you are what you eat. If I eat a candy bar I feel like a pile of gushy chocolate-y caramel. Yuck. But if I eat fruits and veggies and all sort of healthy stuff, well, I feel like an energized little rabbit. I have GOT to work on realizing the instant gratification of the candy bar or cookie is fleeting. Why is it that I realize instant gratification in all others of life are not good, but yet when it comes to food I am so weak? 
• Cultivating my current friendships. Life gets busy and most of my good friends are even busier as they have families and children. Sometimes it's a bit depressing when you realize they don't have as much time for you as they once did and I struggle between re-arranging my schedule to fit theirs or just going on with what I already had in mind and hoping our schedules match somewhere. The happy medium seems difficult to find. 

Me and 3 of my closest friends (the 4 on the right) - 2003?

• Building a stronger foundation in my faith. Simply put, without a solid foundation, I will sink from even the smallest setback in life. God knows I've have those - 2009 was a rough year for me. I am hoping that in this second half of the year I can really get plugged into something that rips me out of my comfort zone in this area. It's one of those prayers you are afraid to pray because you know God WILL take you literally. But I'm praying it. Let's see what happens.

There ya go. This list really isn't anything new. I honestly could have written this list at some point in each of the last 10 years. I think of them as constant struggles that I need freedom from and I am hoping the determination I feel right now sticks with me longer than a week. 

Now it's time to crack that whip!