Don't get me wrong, I love crossfit, and intensity, and pain. I do.
However, my life has recently taken a slightly more balanced turn and I'm being called to focus on a few other things.

Lately, I feel like my 'intensity' is being put towards other areas...and I'm also softening a bit. I don't feel this huge need or desire to pursue athletic accomplishment like I have before, at least not the same way.

Since I retired in 2007 its been a slow process of letting go of competion as my life.

Lately, every time I swing a kettle bell it feels like I'm getting punched in the shoulder. Not in a good way. It feels like my little brother is punching me in the shoulder and I'm ready to scream "knock it off! you're so annoying."

It could be a phase or it could be a more permanent shift. I'm not yet ready to make that judgement call. Right now, I feel like I need to love my body and not force it to take a certain shape.

I've been much more inspired doing other things lately.....



I'm not forgetting however, that doing crossfit is a great way to catch up with good friends. :-)

The Art of Being Clean.

Really, what we're going to talk about is the opposite of the Art of being clean.

I've been cooking at home to save money, which is great and making a huge impact on my finances.
When I cook I make dirty dishes. Then I put them in the sink to come back to later. Lunch rolls around and I have to wash the dishes to make food. After I make food the dishes are back. Then I go on a cleaning rampage and leave for work. That's when the roommate cooks and the sink is full again.

The garbage fills up. Our dumpster is all the way down in the garage. I put the garbage outside our door to take it down when I'm leaving the house. I pack up my stuff to get to work and I walk out the door with my hands full of books, lunch, and training equipment. That's when I see the bag of garbage I left there earlier. I say to myself "I'll get it when I come back." A few hours later I come back from work, exhausted, with my hands full of groceries. I see the garbage bag again "oops forgot about that, I'll get it when I go to work." Obviously, something is NOT working.

Lets talk about laundry, really, lets talk about LAUNDRY. So I have a ton of lululemon right? Its great. I have black, blue, pink, yeah a ton of pink. I have pants, crops, shorts, and even a few running skirts. I have tank tops, t-shirts, and some hoodies. I love having everything to choose from nicely hung up on wooden hangers in my closet. I also wear my lululemon when I train, when I teach, when I work at lululemon and occasionally when I date :-). What I'm getting at, is that as soon as everything is clean and hung up, I have to find an outfit to wear and a tornado hits! Before I know it the day is done and I've gone through 3 different outfits, one for teaching, one for workout out in, and one for working in.

People, this is what is called the vicious cycle. Think about it, something doesn't work.

Self Created Type A

To put it lightly, I'm goal oriented. I'm learning to manage my time in a way that allows me to do everything I want in my life...and yet still feel like I'm at summer camp everyday!

I'm going to give you all a little background, because I want to make sure you all know that I am not inherently type A.
I was homeschooled my entire life. I was given the freedom to create my own schedule and choose where I put my focus. Largely, this was very unstructured. I didn't have very much direction and I cut some big corners. I started kayaking full-time and that was my first exposure to having a very structured day. I kept paddling but aside from working a little bit on top of training, my days were laid back. The most I was doing at once was taking an EMT course, working, and training. This was totally OKAY, because the amount of training I was doing was draining and rest was important.

Over the past year things have changed. I've taken on more and more responsibility and expanded in ways I didn't think were possible.

Inherently, I'm creative, laid back, and would love being off doing random projects and having great adventures. However, I've created goals that thoroughly inspire me and I realize to make them happen its going to take some structure.


I LOVE MY CALENDAR.

I didn't get one until last fall. Now, I don't know how I survived without it.

Why I love my calendar?
-I teach crossfit at two lovely locations, teaching a total of 8 classes a week.
-I have private clients.
-I work at lululemon La Jolla and lululemon San Diego.
-I just started a six month leadership program w/ Landmark Education.
-I workout 5-8 times a week and I am committed to staying on top of my nutrition.
-I have incredible friends who I love spending time with!!
-I enjoy my hobbies: blogging, reading the lululemon library, and learning Spanish.

I scheduled time for grocery shopping.
I schedule time to nap.
I schedule time to play on facebook.

I also started being responsible for my finances. I've always "handled" my finances, however, now I'm setting myself up to get ahead and be inspired by my finances.
With that, I started tracking exactly what I am spending money on. Just being aware of what my daily expenses are has helped me save money! Its personally inspiring...but my closet and Luon collection is mad at me.

I know all you artsy free adventurers are feeling a bit queasy reading this.

However, taking on a few type A qualities has given me quite a bit of freedom.
Taking on some type "A" qualities has made being type "B" easier.

I don't think anyone who knows me now would ever know me as a free-spirited punk rocker teen who just wanted to write songs and hangout with friends all the time. I couldn't run for more than 10 mins without getting bored.

I think I'm going to call myself a "self created type A". I like that.

When I'm retired I will be "re-created type B".