Category Archives: Choices
Self-Reflection Sundays
Life. Goals. Ambitions.
I think we all like to think of ourselves as independent go-getters, and most of the time we are. But we are human and that means sometimes we may need a little push to get us going. Well, I found my “push” and the reason for writing this post is to share it with you.
My “push” is a journal, but this is no ordinary journal. It’s a “Get Off Your Ass” Journal to Help You Change Your Life, Achieve Your Goals, and Rock Your World!, or so it says on the cover. Yes my friends, I’m talking about Skinny Bitchin’ by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. Also the authors of Skinny Bitch (which is an eye-opener in terms of diet and health choices), these two are the fiercest power authors I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know. They’ve had their worlds rocked and decided to use their experiences to make a difference in the lives of others.
Each page in Skinny Bitchin’ has a new, thought-provoking, and usually hilarious prompt. From prompts like “Just for today, try not to care about how you look. Wear whatever you want, don’t obsess about your hair, and detach your sense of self from you appearance” to “Often in life, we don’t get what we want because we aren’t clear on what it is we actually want. Get clear here and now. The universe will respond”, this journal covers everything from head-to-toe.
Writing in this journal daily has really opened me up to, well, me. I’m learning more about myself everyday, including things I didn’t already know and things I’ve somehow forgotten. I feel like I’ve gotten back on track because I’ve been forced to think in different ways, from different perspectives, with different emotions and prerogatives in mind. So if you’re in need of a little kick in the rear, I encourage you to give this journal try. Who knows? It just might make that little difference you’ve been searching for.
Thank you, BodyRock!
Wow.
I woke up this morning to an email in my inbox from Frederick with BodyRock. He told me to check out their Facebook page and what do you know? They chose to post my fitness story! To say I was shocked, stunned, and over the moon are severe understatements.
It’s been about 2 1/2 months since I began my fitness journey and over that time, I’m down 10lbs. As I’ve stated before, it’s not the number on the scale, but how I felt every day. I was bogged down with no energy; I felt low and heavy. Now I feel full of energy, happy, and motivated. As you start to make working out part of your daily routine, it won’t feel like a chore anymore. It’ll become a habit, and a good one at that 
I plan to continue sharing my journey through my Fitness Fridays posts. My only hope is that I am able to motivate and inspire other people as much as BodyRock has inspired me!
Check out BodyRock’s Facebook page, as well as the BodyRock website.
They have amazing workouts, food & diet advice, fitness tips, as well as a large, supportive community. They helped me get to where I am today, and I know they can help you too!
Self-Reflection Sundays
My family members are in my thoughts each and every day, especially today. I am so proud and inspired by my cousin, Jake, and his dad, mom, and brother.
To my Uncle Scott: You are in my thoughts and prayers everyday and I admire your strength through your fight with cancer. My heart goes out to you. Thank you for being such an incredible person and for never giving up! I love you.
Watch this amazing story: Coaches vs. Cancer Studio
Fitness Fridays
Today concludes fifteen consecutive days of healthy eating and working out at least once (but mostly twice) a day. I’m not looking to be rail-thin, model-esque, or Olympian-strong. I’m looking to be fit. Plain and simple.
I thought I’d post a “day in the life” of… well, me. I work 8+ hours every weekday and sometimes take work home on the weekends, but I’ve still managed to prioritize my time so that my health and fitness come first. When you’re healthy, it’s a lot easier to be happy and I’ve noticed how much better I’m performing at work, within my social life, and my mood overall. Within this 2 weeks, I’m 5.6lbs down. To me though, it’s not the number that matters. It’s how I feel when I put on my clothes and realize that they’re no longer snug. It’s how I feel when my muscles are sore each and every day and the realization that they’re growing, only to improve my strength in the long run. It’s how I feel when I shed my clothes before a nice, long shower – that girl in the mirror is fit and toned. It’s who I’ve always wanted to be.
Now that I have it, I won’t let it go. That I can promise you.
A Day in the Life of Kristen Leigh
Work-Out Plan
4:30AM
20 minutes on the elliptical
20 minutes of weights (3 reps of 15 on each machine in the photo below)
100 sit-ups
1-2 minutes plank
6:00PM
45-60 minutes on the elliptical
30 minutes weights (3 reps of 15 on each machine in the photo below)
200 sit-ups
1-2 minutes plank
3 sets of 15 lunges with 5lb weight in each hand
It’s important to alternate between legs and arms each day in order to allow your muscles to rest and grow, but cardio should be done everyday! If the weights feel too light, boost ‘em and lift heavier amounts. Give yourself at least one day off each week, but don’t slack off by eating a bunch of fried junk food. Don’t get me wrong, you can definitely treat yourself. But I’ve come to learn it’s all about moderation. I’ve been able to tone up and lose those pounds the past two weeks while treating myself to a cupcake, a cheeseburger and fries, and a big bowl of popcorn. The key is to have just enough and not too much. Again, moderation. The sooner you learn that, the easier this will be.
Meal Plan
Breakfast
Prepackaged Jamba Smoothie and a sliced apple
OR Silk’s Fruit Protein drink (8oz) and a sliced apple
(I’m not a big breakfast person)
Lunch
I normally eat a grilled chicken salad, either house or Greek. I avoid croutons and fatty dressings. I try to stick to balsamic vinaigrette or low fat organic Italian.
OR I’ll have a grilled chicken breast that I cooked the night before with sautéed onions, red peppers, and other veggies.
Dinner
I will either grill a chicken breast, shrimp or fish. I love broccoli so I steam a large bowl of that as well as asparagus, onions, and red peppers. I’ll also have a cup of brown rice with low sodium soy sauce drizzled on top.
Snacks
Throughout the day, I’ll have about 3-5 snacks. I always have an apple and a banana, as well as flavored Greek yogurt. Sometimes I’ll bring carrot slices with nonfat ranch, almonds, and sliced celery with nonfat peanut butter.
I’m always looking for new healthy recipes because a meal plan like this can be a little bland from time to time. My recipe book has grown over the past two weeks and I must say, it’s nice craving fruits & veggies instead of sweets and treats. To keep track of everything, I use the Lose It! App. You can track your daily food intake, as well as your workouts. If your goal is to lose weight, you can set up a caloric limit and work towards that goal through diet and exercise.
The hardest part is starting. Really, it is.
The first 3-4 days will be tough. Super tough. But in a week in a half, you’ll start to notice those tiny changes that will begin to make all the difference, like your clothes hanging looser or the feeling of having more energy. Those tiny changes start to turn into noticeably larger ones, and that, my friends, is what will keep you going. At least that’s what does it… for me.
Good luck! Get fit!
(To follow my journey, feel free to follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Usernames for both are kristen_leighh)
Five Tips for Standing Out in Your First Job
Adapted from Monster, Alexandra Levit hits some key points. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Hopefully, this isn’t news to recent college graduates, but the workplace is more competitive than ever. If you have a job already, congratulations — you’ve made it over the first hurdle. Now it’s time to make sure you can stay put through this economic crisis and beyond.
Here are five essential tips gleaned from working with HR staff, managers and twenty-something employees in hundreds of organizations.
1. Be the One Everyone Wants to Work With
Members of Generation Y, or those born roughly between 1978 and 1993, unfortunately, have a reputation of showing up to work with a sense of entitlement. Combat this perception by showing that you’re willing to pay your dues and learn from any assignment, owning your career progression and being a “can-do” person. If you encounter roadblocks, marshal your resources to get around them rather than letting a project languish.
2. Surpass Your Boss’s Expectations
Find out what the boss wants from you first, and then brainstorm ways to go above and beyond the call of duty. You can also establish a good rapport by making your new boss feel needed. Show that you are ready and willing to be guided, and bond over the fact that he has some years on you. Understand the value of self-sufficiency, and approach your boss with a problem or complaint only if you’ve explored all options for resolving it yourself.
3. Carve a Niche for Yourself Through Innovation
Ask yourself what your company or department needs, and think about how you can use your unique set of skills and talents to provide it. So what if you’re hardly a Renaissance man or woman? You’re still new blood. Can you offer a fresh perspective on a vexing problem that has been plaguing your managers for months? Can you find a way to do something faster and more efficiently?
4. Take the Extra Step to Help Someone
Beach-ball management, or bouncing a request over to a colleague because it’s not your responsibility to handle it, is all too common in the professional world. If someone asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, make it your business to find it. By doing whatever you can to ensure your department or organization is perceived in a positive light, you will add value and stand out as a team player.
5. Subtly Promote Your Achievements
If you want people to take notice of you, you must make your accomplishments visible. How do you share your contributions without being perceived as arrogant or boastful? The key is enthusiasm. If you emphasize your passion when describing an achievement, people will think you’re just excited about it. An excited person appears earnest, and it’s hard to be critical of someone who’s earnest.
Of course, these suggestions aren’t limited to new college grads. If you’ve been out of school two years or 20, the tips might well be worthwhile in hanging onto your job through the downturn.
{Alexandra Levit, a nationally recognized business and workplace expert, is the author of the They Don’t Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something’s Guide to the Business World.}
Dangerous Topic: Politics
Like the majority of folks in the U.S., I tuned into the first presidential debate last night. Needless to say, I’m more confused now than I was before. I truly think I’m smack dab in the middle, and maybe you are too. I will say that I was surprised at how civil the two candidates were during the debate. It actually wasn’t horrible to watch.
My sister introduced me to ISideWith, a website where you can answer questions in multiple categories, including social, environmental, economic, domestic policy, healthcare, foreign policy, immigration, and science. It goes beyond just answering “Yes & No”. You can choose a different stance, as well as rate the issues in terms of how important they are to you. At the end, you’ll receive percentages regarding who you side with and in what categories. You can also see which side each state is swaying towards.
For those who are undecided like me, this is a great tool to get you started. If you missed the debate, you can watch it here. Make sure to tune into CNN for The Vice Presidential Debate on October 11th from 9:00-10:30PM Eastern Time, as well as The Second Presidential Debate on October 16th from 9:00-10:30PM Eastern Time . More importantly, make sure you are registered to vote and have requested your early voting ballot by mail. Otherwise, we’ll see you at the polls on November 6th!
Happy Voting!
{Photos via ISideWith and ABC News}
Racin’ For The Cure
Yesterday, I signed up for my first competitive, timed 5K – Susan G. Komen’s Race For The Cure. The race is on October 6th, which is only 3 weeks away. Needless to say, I needed to hop on my training plan right away. I started training yesterday and planned on “easing into things”. But of course, being me, I dove into it head on. I ran the full 3.1 miles yesterday with 2 one-minute walking breaks, for a total time of 33 minutes. I told myself to relax today, but I didn’t. Running is my nirvana. It’s my stress reliever. It’s the only thing that makes me feel really good after a long, busy, productive day at work. Mostly people like to sit in front of the TV and eat junk food. I run 3 miles and then dig my hands into an over-sized bag of carrots. Silly wabbit.
Today was day 2 of training and I’ve already improved my time by 2 minutes (ran straight through, no walking breaks)! Now the time to beat is 31 minutes. I’m taking this very seriously and hope to reach my goal time of 28 minutes. If you want to join me and support the fight against breast cancer, please click on the link below to donate. Even $1 or $5 goes a long way. Think of it as your charitable contribution for the week, month, year, or what not Thank you to my mother for being the first to donate!! Any and all support is greatly appreciated!
Join the fight against breast cancer!
What Love Shouldn’t Feel Like
A truly captivating article. Read on.
Love shouldn’t feel circumstantial. It shouldn’t feel as if I love you more than you love me or vice versa. There shouldn’t be conditions, levels or lesser degrees of love. If there are then whatever you’re feeling is something else. Maybe lust, maybe like, maybe comfort – but certainly not love. The effort shouldn’t be one-sided; all of the little things can’t come from one contributor; and if you hurt, your companion should as well.
Love shouldn’t make someone feel like a bother. We shouldn’t be able to empathize with a pesky gnat at a picnic, being shooed away. Love shouldn’t be treated like hard labor, and it shouldn’t feel like it either. It shouldn’t make us sad more often than happy, or lead to bad times outweighing the good.
Love shouldn’t consist of waiting around to hear from the person you care infinitely about. That’s the worst. Sitting by your phone, waiting on pins and needles for something – anything from them. The phone might vibrate, but it’s beyond disappointing when it turns out to be a text from somebody else. It aches your heart to know that they’re somewhere out there, completely unfazed by your absence. We can convince ourselves that the subpar phone service failed to deliver our lover’s text, or prevented their call – but we know the chances of that are slim. And sure, we could just contact them, but when you initiate conversations regularly, it’d be nice to have that attention reciprocated. Love shouldn’t feel like being wide-awake until 3am; wishing, hoping, praying for a measly phone call from the one you adore.
Love shouldn’t keep notes on every blunder ever made. When a mistake occurs, retaliation should never be a thought. The pain felt by your companion’s mistake shouldn’t make you want to get even. If you know how much it hurt you, why would you want the one you love to experience that same agony? Those feelings are poisonous. A desire to exact revenge or document every error is a surefire sign that you’re involved in something other than love. Instead you’ve got yourself a contaminated, breakable link that the Grim Reaper of Love is ominously stalking – preparing for its imminent death.
Love shouldn’t feel like uncertainty. It shouldn’t feel like a battle. It shouldn’t feel like a tug of war, with two people trying to make the other “love” them more. Maybe you’ve mistaken your physical infatuation, or crush at a time of vulnerability for love. Those things are flimsy. Those feelings are fragile. The first storm will either demolish those relationships, or leave enough water damage to rust and wither them away.
Love shouldn’t feel hopeless, because it never is. In love, a pair can be down, but never knocked out. Love should make all things possible, even if they aren’t necessarily looking good today. If I love you and you love me, we will prevail – but if we don’t, we won’t. Love shouldn’t feel like we won’t.
{via Christopher Hudspeth, Thought Catalog}
Don’t stumble over something behind you
It’s time to talk about life. Life has lots of hurdles. Lots of bumps in the road. We’ve all come across those roadblocks, ones that may physically be standing in our way or abstract ones that seem truly impossible to pass. Very rarely is life easy, and most people learn this the hard way. Luckily, from every mistake, hardship, and heartache comes a lesson. These, my friends, are called life lessons.
Now, there are two kinds of people in this world (yes, I truly believe this). There are people who make mistakes, never learn from them, and continue to make those same mistakes over and over. Then there are people who make a mistake only once or twice, come to terms with those consequences, and learn to cut that behavior out of their life. I like to believe I am the latter. No one is perfect. We’re human and emotions get the best of us sometimes. Everyone has the capability to feel angry, jealous, irritated, depressed, or envious and these feelings are usually exercised more frequently than others. But the way you act as you are feeling these emotions says a lot about your character; this can make it or break it for most relationships.
Your soul is your character. Your character is your soul. To me, they are one in the same. How you choose to treat those around you whether it’s giving your word and sticking to it or telling a friend the harsh truth say a lot about you as a person. Is it okay to tell someone close to you that they’re making a wrong decision? Sure. As long as you have facts to back your case up, the act of saving someone from a harsh reality is something a good friend would do. If they choose to listen and take your advice, great. If not, then bear in mind that it’s their mistake, not yours. In the end, we all must ask ourselves, “Which kind of person do I want to be?”
You can’t physically stumble over a rock or pothole you’ve already passed down the road, so why stumble over something that has already passed by in life? You shouldn’t because it’s not worth it.
It’s already passed. Gone. Out the window.
So let it go. Let it drift away.
Do this and promise yourself one thing: I won’t look back.
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