Raige Creations

Who would have thought I would find my spirit animal on a walk? Is it really my spirit animal, or just a chance sighting I thoroughly enjoyed? We have been doing well getting our walks in. Oh yes, I have a walking partner now! I finally got hubby to start exercising. Even if i go a slower pace than when I am alone, it is great to have some company. Our walks bring us to the North Sound. If you follow me , you should recognize the views. I try to take a picture every day, thinking it would be interesting to see the slight differences each day. Honestly I think some days are just so beautiful, other are more subdued. A different view each time really. But perhaps I am the only one that finds it that way, as the moods often highly affect my interpretation of the views. And I may be the only one who never tires of these same place views. As we are still on  lock-down , and the beaches are still closed, I must find interest with what is in walking distance as we are not t...

Motivation. It is hard, yo. Especially to get out the door, and drive to have a swimming workout. from teespring.com It is not uncommon for me to have major motivational problems to do this. Especially when my coach (hubby) says he is not up for going with me. I sit and battle with myself that I really SHOULD go, but don't want to ~ it takes so much preparation to go. Both physically and mentally. These help, a little gift I got myself - I LOVE these goggles. He usually says, after I whine about the struggle to him, ' Just go if you're gonna go !'  His way of motivating. Gee, thanks coach . I guess it is somewhat effective. I have this struggle nearly every time I plan to go for a swim workout, so I often go to Pinterest for motivation, as one does. Usually, it works: his words in my head and reading all the motivational things I find.  This made me think about the whole process that makes it so hard to do. To get ready: put in contacts. put on sui...

I had never tried a treadmill before. Yes that is right, never. I was always the "nah, I prefer walking outside anyways" type, even though I had never really had access to such things as treadmills. But, now I DO have access, and I tried it. Treadmills these days are much more tech savvy than they used to be. And I am not very tech savvy. So the first day I tried one, I unsuccessfully linked to the workout app recommended. I decided to just start and try again at the end of the workout. There were workouts to choose from, but being my first day and a bit strapped for time, I just picked a time and speed and went for it. A bit boring. No. Really boring. Just keep staring at the wall? Look out the window at the parking lot and office building...wow. Riveting. I kept going, looking at the screen at some generic path with computer generated people I was passing. I noticed a cord hanging there, after sufficiently bored with the path and computer people. Thinking, ...

It was a long work week this week. After the emotional  last few weeks, I had to be knee deep in year end reports. Ah the financial world. Though there is some satisfaction when the spreadsheets balance, it is often a long road to that point. Add to that, there has been no exercise for the last 3 WEEKS! Yes, that is correct. 3 friggin weeks. And it wasn't like I was eating carefully either. It seems when one goes out the window, the other follows. My lame and completely wrong justification,  "Well I am not working out anyways....so why not have those fries, and yes I may as well have another cookie while I am at it!" It was thus proved I have NO willpower. At all. None. And I was feeling really crappy about it. The evidence is, I ate 2 boxes of my favorite Girl Scout Cookies in 2 weeks. No willpower. At all. Had them for dinner one night. Feeling like big fat crap. My kryptonite, I don't care if they are called Caramel DeLites or Samoas , I am too weak to...

from Pinterest via http://paleoaholic.com/ My mind was the one that had the bright idea to try the early morning Cross Fit class. I knew I had to do it, get back to seriously exercising, but I was afraid. I had not been to Cross Fit since the end of May. Two WHOLE MONTHS. Plus, I did very little in the way of any other exercise. I stopped getting up early for run/walks. I hardly walked on the beach. Swim? Nope. Kayak? Once. Eat? Hell yeah! I ate. I ate pizza, fried fish with French fries (yumm), and more pizza, had cookies, pies, ice cream. I even broke down and had a Wendy's burger with French fries (yummm). (I LOVE French fries) Ugh. By yesterday, after polishing off half a pie in 2 days, I was downright feeling fat, disgusted with myself. Now, I DID enjoy everything I ate. I made sure to. I knew all along it would catch up with me. And yesterday it did. I felt like I was rolling down the hallways at work, sloshing around the house. When I sat I felt like Jabb...

As you may have guessed if you are a follower, I have not been keeping up with my workout schedule. You may have noticed I stopped writing about running and walking, stopped posting my workouts, stopped talking about it altogether! Well, you are right. I have slacked. Big time. I did manage 2 workouts last week, but I barely remember them. They were at the beginning of the week, then I didn't go at all the rest of the week. This week, I am NOT off to a good start. Haven't been at all.  I know, you are saying 'well it's early in the week yet'. Yes, but tomorrow is supposed to be COLD! Chance of snow. Yuck. Plus, I have SO much to do, I just haven't had the time to spare.  Yes, this is an excuse. I know.  But I successfully have talked myself out of getting out there several days now. I reasoned that the time it takes to walk (or run) plus the necessary shower afterwards was just too much! I could accomplish so much on my list in that time. Lame...

One benefit of a new walking path. It has been a long several months without my walking or running. I got bogged down with stress, and found getting out to do my morning runs, or even just walks, to be completely stressful. That isn't what they started out as, and not at all what they should be, so I stopped. Completely stopped. Running and walking was stressing me out, the totally wrong way to go about it, so I stopped. I knew that doing things that were causing more stress, rather than helping, meant it was time for a change.  It makes sense and seems logical, but in reality it is quite difficult to make such a sudden change when it is something that started off so good, so right, and then over time turns into not so good, and so not right. It happens slowly, yet the change we need must happen immediately. Another benefit of the new path. After some time off, and still feeling the stresses of the rest of my life, I decided one day, after a days work, to go out in th...

I know it's hard when you're falling down And it's a long way up when you hit the ground Get up now, get up, get up now.  A good sunset hike last week gave me the peace and energy I didn't even realize I had been missing.  I didn't realize how nature, quiet (real quiet that can only be enjoyed far away from houses, streets, buildings, people) and natural beauty could make me feel like I was on top of the world. And of course, this song popped in my head. A sense that I had been missing something in my life hit me, about when I had found what it was that I had been missing! I  had found it in the time I was out there hiking, seeing, feeling nature. The waterfall, the sunset, the streams and trees. This is what I loved doing, and lately that feeling had been avoiding me.  I found found what had been missing out there, and that alone made me feel like I am on top of the world.  Like Imagine Dragons says: I've had the highest mountains I'...

I lost it. I lost motivation. Well, I lost motivation for running, and blogging.  I still seem to get up and go open the shop, but that is all I can seem to accomplish these days. It has been 3 weeks since I blogged! And 5 days since I have suited up and got out the door to run OR walk!!  Rainy view from work. Today, I think I remember where I stashed that motivation. It was buried under mental exhaustion and stress, and hiding from the almost non-stop rain. It is still raining, but I am pulling out my motivation to begin to dust it off and use it again.  Sometimes it takes other peoples words to get me motivated. And other people's ideas. H ere are some that helped me dust off my motivation and at least stretch today. They worked so well for me here I am, I am even blogging, and I really hope to get out there and run tomorrow. These words do relate to running, but really you can apply these to every day, simple living. (All are from Favorite Run .) --Quit o...

I am searching for a good playlist for my runs, which now I can call them because I run for the entire distance, well minus the warm up and warm down. I also measured the distance, and found I do run 2 miles on this path that I have been taking for the last several months, walking and running.  I need a playlist good for 3 miles now though, as I am joining the Arthritis Foundation this year for their 2012 Jingle Bell Run - my first public race. (And now I am only $35 away from my humble goal for the cause) It is a 5k, 3.1 miles. One more mile than my regular workouts. Hubby started the search, and somehow we got lost in the 1980's. (something that happens with regularity it seems....) With great songs like Dexy's Midnight Runners (get it? runners... heehee) , and The Proclaimers and 500 Miles . With a good beat, and a running theme, I think we were on to something. But when he played this song , I knew it had to be on the list AND today's Music Monday! It...

Wow. I did it. I ran non-stop today. No middle of the trail walk because I was so out of breath, no "I'll just walk for a little bit then run again" . I did my normal walk down the long driveway and up the first hill ~ this is my everyday warm up.  Then I ran. I did not slow to a walk at the road with the hill, I went straight, to the second school.  Then I turned and went down that road, and back up that hill, all at a run .  I dealt with others walking ~ meaning I had to reel LadyJ in and keep her from trying to greet each person as we passed. All at a run . This is not really an easy task when running, as she always seems to try to run right in front of me, tripping me. OR runs behind me tangling us up in the leash.  Then there was the other runner with his dog. He must have the same problems because he quickly got off the sidewalk and into the road so we could run past each other not too close, as both dogs seemed to want to get near each other. This mea...