Recap: Looking Better

I exercised five times this week.

Five times.

That’s crazy for me. I mean, this is coming from a girl who flat-out didn’t like going to the gym and really didn’t want to move if unless it involved goggles and chlorine. Any mention of running and suddenly I had a strong desire to do homework.

But that’s changed. And it didn’t happen abruptly, either: gradually I worked from doing a Yoga for Dummies DVD in my room every so often to “running” on the elliptical machine twice a week to… to this. A week in which I made three very different and fulfilling gym trips and ran from my house to Davis’s twice. (that’s 3.5 miles, by the way.)

And I feel better too. I feel like I look good. I caught myself staring me down in the mirror yesterday thinking I looked beautiful. My stomach is still a little squishy, but there’s muscle under there now. And I’ve been told that others can see a difference, too.

I’m glad it’s no longer a battle to exercise now. A lot of that I attribute to my friend Mat, who has literally been kicking my butt into shape this quarter. I’m so appreciative of the efforts he’s put into making me look and feel good – he’s paced with me while I’ve run (rather slowly, for him) and been my spotter as I’ve attempted various weightlifting exercises. He hasn’t given up on me – on the contrary, he’s made me feel awesome. So Mat, if you’re reading this, thank you 😀

I feel like I’m really making progress at improving myself this year. I hope I continue down this path for a while… 🙂

Looking Better

Hey there. I’m just getting ready to go to bed, but before I do, I thought I should post a little to destress and share a few rays of sunshine I’ve recently experienced with you 🙂

1) Thanksgiving was excellent – I went home for it the first time in a few years and it was nice to see everyone and everything again. Especially the fall colors – the drive was gorgeous! My sister spent the weekend before with me at school, which was great fun, and then we went home together.

2) Upon returning back to school, life of course became infinitely more stressful, especially because I have a HUGE test tomorrow that I’ve been preparing for. So it definitely made me smile, after spending hours studying electrical engineering, to notice this on my bathroom floor:

That’s right: I’ve got a smiley face on the floor of my bathroom. 😀 Definitely brightened my day!

3) And upon coming back home after our mini-Thanksgiving break, I found our apartment decorated out to the max for Christmas. Oh goodness. So much excitement. I LOVE the holidays 😀 I also now have Christmas lights up in my desk cave that make me so so happy (pictures to come 🙂 ).

4) You know what else is awesome? Country music. And Christmas music. And making new friends. And talking about weddings. And meeting with photographers. And getting excited about LIFE and all it has to offer.

5) Okay, where I was really going with the opening of the previous number before I got sidetracked by life’s little things: having the motivation to exercise is awesome. Going to the gym started out as “I should do this, I should get in shape for my wedding/the half-marathon I want to run in ten months, blah blah blah, drag my feet” but now it’s something I’m really excited about doing! I LOVE the way I feel after I work out. I love running to country music on the ellipticals and holding yoga poses. I just feel so excellent about myself. And on top of this I feel like my efforts have started to show. Now that I’m not focusing on losing weight and am rather just liking the exercise, I’m toning my body and making it look awesome. How cool is that?!

A few more things on this note: I think I’m finally starting to see the appeal in running, and I’m actually trying to run myself. I ran twice over Thanksgiving and I felt sooo good afterwards. My muscles burned like no other the next day, but that was part of the reward! I’m also motivating my family to exercise, which feels great. I feel like I’m getting in shape and they see that they can too. My mom ran with me the second time I went at home, and I’m so proud of her!

Also – and maybe this is what’s spurring this on just a little bit – I received a disguised compliment from my grandma while at home. For about as long as I can remember, my grandma has thought that I’ve been… well… fat (and has told me this repeatedly). While I recognize that I’m a big person – I’m 6’1″, for goodness sake – my doctors have never said that I’ve been overweight. I’m totally proportional, just a little bit taller. Still, this is something that I struggle with simply because it’s in my head that I’m fat. So when I saw her (my grandma, that is) when I got home last Tuesday, she said, “Sarah! You’re looking better!”

I’m looking… better? Like there was something wrong with me in the first place? I mean, I guess to her, there was… but hey, I’m looking better! I choose to think about this not in a negative way – I recognize that she thought (and probably continues to think) I’m overweight, and there’s nothing I can do to change her prospective of me – but instead, I’ve taken it as a compliment. To me, this means that my exercising has started to pay off – yes! 🙂 Now I’m bothered that my gym time is being cut into by homework… I’m not such a fan, but it’s okay because I get to go tomorrow after my exam!

So this progress in exercising… why does this make me so happy? Mostly because now that I’ve started, I don’t ever want to stop.

6) Life’s started to look shiny again. By which I mean, things just have a way of looking so so good, even if not everything is perfect or going smoothly or whatever. It’s the feeling I get when I listen to a really good song and can hear every note. The one that strikes me when I stop and look around and just marvel at how amazing life is. The shine had disappeared for the past few weeks – for whatever reason, I had less of those moments than usual. But it’s coming back again, and I’m finding those little things that just make me grin like crazy. Like that happyface in the bathroom – so random and so small, but still so wonderful.

7) It’s windy outside… and it’s late. I have a test tomorrow, and time planned out to exercise. And a date. 😀 I should sleep and dream sweet dreams about everything good in life.