Accounta-buddy Check In

Hi friends!

I’m fighting the Sunday night slump by focusing on how amazingly productive I’ve been today.

That must mean it’s time to catch up on my self-imposed accountability challenge. Ready…set…recap!

• Write meta descriptions: nope

I was about to do this right now, but I’m realistic that my time and energy is waning and if I wrote those descriptions I wouldn’t have written this post. So this did not happen.

• Add more meals to the plan: yes!

I added all the salads I wanted to, plus a couple extra snacks that I wasn’t planning on adding, and got the plans emailed out today. I’m pretty thrilled with the meal plans and prep plans that I created for my friends this week. The calories are right on point, there are a ton more vegetables, and they’re significantly less grain heavy.

• Attend my work event: yup

Leon was my date on Wednesday for cocktails and snacks and schmoozing.

• Pay water bill: done

I’m loving this whole not waiting until the very last minute to pay bills thing.

• Buy plane tickets for New York in July: yes

Nothing like getting to the very end of the buying process and having Delta tell you that the ticket price went up in the time it took you to fill out all the dumb forms. So we’re flying American.

• Alter my skirt: kind of

I put the skirt on to mark where I needed to move the buttons to and it fit perfectly. Either I gained weight or I didn’t tuck my shirt in when I tried it on the first time around. I’m pretty fine either way so I’m counting this as kind of done.

• Write my follow up post: almost done

Give me a few more sentences and this one will be done.

Granted, I did a lot of these things today. Suddenly Leon and I became very popular this week with birthday drinks one night, overnight guests two different nights, and a housewarming party, so all my tasks got pushed until today. I’m pretty okay with that, though.

I’m especially okay with that because it means that I feel freshly productive and capable for the week ahead.

So tell me, friends, what’s your Sunday ritual? Grocery shopping? Chores? Sunday funday?

Cheers, Kara

Be My Accounta-buddy?

Happy Monday friends!

Normally you don’t wish someone a “happy Monday,” but Monday is over and I’m happy about that. So it counts.

Before I dive in, I want to thank you all so much for reading my inspiration post about Cypher University. You all loved that post, so I promise that I’ll 1) write more posts about inspiration, and 2) go to more awesome hip hop shows and tell you about them.

It’s time for you all to have another go-round as my accounta-buddies. (For those of you that don’t know, that means “accountability buddies” and the original post about it is here.)

As I was trying to make my next appointment with the seamstress that’s altering my wedding dress (eeeeeeek!) I realized that my schedule is getting crazy. With wedding things and summer things and life things and all the other things, I’m finding that my To Do list keeps growing and stupidly easy things keep getting pushed back. So that’s what this Get Shit Done List is all about.

• Write meta descriptions.

I really need to up my SEO game on this blog. I’m not looking to monetize this blog by any means, but I do love flexing my digital marketing muscles, so this will be a fun project.

• Add more meals to the plan.

I’m currently writing weekly meal plans and food prep plans for a couple of friends to help them eat healthier and hit some of their #gainz goals and I want to add a couple more salads to the mix now that it’s getting warmer.

• Pay water bill.

Since Leon and I merged our finances I have been kicking ass at paying bills more then two days before they’re due. I want to keep that streak going.

Have I mentioned that I love business clothes?

• Attend my work event.

The temp agency that I’m working with is having an event on Wednesday. This is an easy one that I’m going to check off, so consider this me padding the list a little so I can have a win.

• Buy plane tickets for New York in July.

Leon and I are going to Long Island in July to finalize a bunch of stuff for the wedding and I need to book those tickets before the prices go up. Unless you know some actual tips for getting cheaper plane tickets. If you do, please share!

• Alter my skirt.

I bought a killer white wrap skirt from Ann Taylor a month ago and it’s a bit big, so I need to move the buttons to make it wrap tighter.

• Write my follow up post.

Okay. I’m padding this list again. I’m totally okay with that.

So there’s my list for this week. If I can get all those very easy, mostly quick tasks done I will consider it a very successful week. I’ll check back in with you on Sunday to tell you how it went.

What’s on your list this week, friends? I’ll be more than happy to hold you accountable.

Cheers, Kara

Get Inspired: Hip Hop Showcase

Hiya friends!

Let’s talk about inspiration, shall we?

Inspiration is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m pretty far from where I want to be professionally. I’m not in my dream job. I may be significantly closer than when I worked in HR, so I’m happy about that, but it’s still a long way from my dream job. Such a long way, in fact, that I feel a little like an Underwear Gnome.

I don't like South Park, but I like Underwear Gnomes.

So given that those middle steps are still very vague and hazy I’ve been finding it hard to inspire myself to make moves when, for all I know, those moves could be in the complete wrong direction. I mean, Step 2 is still so hazy that I can’t even make a SMART goal about it!

This quote is not inspiring in the least.

I’m not the only person who feels that way, right?

So here’s what I’ve been trying lately to get inspired and keep Step 2 in my sights. Hint: it’s not bullshitty quotes on pictures.

Last week I went to a hip hop showcase. My friend came into town because she is making a documentary on a group of emcees that were putting on a show. I had absolutely no clue what I was walking into.

It turns out that I walked into a group of amazingly talented, amazingly brave artists. How talented were they?

I stayed out two hours later than I planned, which is huge because I don’t give up sleep easily.

Watching these emcees perform was beyond energizing. They held nothing back. They put everything out there. They cared as much about respecting and supporting their fellow performers as they did about what the crowd thought of them.

These guys (and one very talented lady) were normal guys. They were nerdy college students. One was a college professor. One worked at Planet Fitness. One puffed on an inhaler before starting. And they were doing this unbelievably cool thing. Their rhymes were so original and they talked about real things, not fur coats and banging hoes and whatever else rappers today talk about.

Watching these guys perform, I couldn’t help but get inspired. I’m not going to buy a rhyming dictionary and try to perform with them anytime soon (or ever, probably), but I want to be more like them.

I want to grind and grind and grind without recognition like they do, simply because I love what I’m grinding at so much. I want to encourage other people to get better and work harder without fear that they’re going to surpass me. I want to put myself out there and do big, amazing things without fear of failing in front of people.

I want to fail in front of people and then try again.

These guys were doing all those things and they were doing them set to a beat. Like I said, this whole night was beyond inspiring. I left feeling energized and ready to make moves.

I didn’t make moves that night because, again, I love sleep. But that energy and all the poorly shot cell phone videos I look that night are going to carry me through a lot of grinding to come.

What about you, friends? What has inspired you lately?

Cheers, Kara

Happy Crossfit Injury-versary

Hello friends!

Today is kind of a special day for me. And thanks to the magic that are content calendars and scheduled posts, I am able to publish this post on the actual day (not three days late like I am with birthday cards).

Anyway…

Today is the two year anniversary of when I f’ed my shoulder up at Crossfit. It’s also kind of the one year anniversary of when I grew up a little.

I remember April 2, 2014 very well. I had been doing Crossfit for 22 months. I was absolutely not the best Crossfitter, but I had finally overcome the knee injury that I had when I started and the hip problem I developed while doing it, so I was feeling great.

Hell, I was 23. I had that Blink 182 song stuck in my head for the whole year (and if you click on that link you will, too), so I felt like a straight badass all year. Crossfit only fueled that badass attitude. Of course I felt great!

Just your typical, industrial Crossfit gym.

Anyway, the workout was a tough one.

100 toes to bar15 wall balls every time you come off the pull up bar

(Links to movements.)

I was just getting the hang of toes to bar and walls balls were never a favorite of mine. I could have scaled it down with a lighter wall ball or an easier ab move, but I was a badass! Badasses don’t scale!

Also, I had promised myself that if I did 10 workouts without scaling I could get a pedicure.

So I did the workout as written. I came off the pull up bar a bunch and missed a bunch of the wall balls. Nothing about it was fun or enjoyable, but I did it because that’s what a Crossfitter does.

And if you know anything about Crossfit stereotypes, you know that getting injured is also what a Crossfitter does. And that’s exactly what happened next.

Bright, sharp pains were shooting and radiating through my shoulder. Taking off my sweaty sports bra when I got home was nearly impossible and involved a good bit of rolling on the bed and counting “1…2…3” as I coaxed myself to move.

I’m not going to recount the whole next year. It involved lots of pretending I was okay, “going light” on the weights, and one handed hair washing.

A gym switch and a year later, I was onto my second doctor with no real improvement to show for it. But as I was telling that second doctor all about my year long injury (and all my other injuries) I had a very interesting revelation.

Here goes:

Crossfit (and anything else that causes you to push yourself) is really great, but only until you push yourself to stupid, painful places. And once you get to that point you lose all the benefits you gained from pushing yourself in the first place.

A shorter version of that revelation is this:

Pushing yourself is great, but only when you do it smartly and with control. Once you lose control you lose all of the benefits.

I'm definitely not the fastest, but I'm probably not the slowest.

That’s a tough understanding for a 24 year old and a Crossfitter to come to. Both of those things lent themselves to making me think that I was invincible and all my decisions were great.

I’m definitely not invincible and my decisions are not all great. (This is the point when all of my older, more mature friends start nodding and laughing at me. That’s fair. I deserve it.)

In the year since I’ve had that revelation my shoulder has gotten better. It still bothers me sometimes and likely always will. But the difference between 23 year old me and 25 year old me (aside from lots and lots of things) is that I’m completely and totally okay with having limitations. I no longer view limitations as things that need to be blindly defied.

This is not saying that I’m accepting mediocrity or that I’m succumbing to complacency. I’m not doing either of those things. I’m still Crossfitting  and setting crazy goals and being a badass in other ways. But now I’m more of an intentional badass with a little bit of self-control and forethought (and a bum shoulder). 

Competing in my first Crossfit competition and not expecting to win. 

So there you go. Happy anniversary to my shoulder and to my small modicum of maturity.

Your turn, friends. Tell me about your sport injuries.

Cheers, Kara