21-Day Challenge | Week 3

Boy do I have some explaining to do... Remember when I ran that five miles last Sunday? Well I haven't exercised since then. But you can't blame me, I'm right in the midst of finals week, and you know how grueling that can be. However, I did stick to eating well all last week, which was a plus! However, seeing as I have four exams ahead of me, I have allotted myself four days to splurge, because when I'm stressed and need ice cream, I'm willing to indulge if it means I can calm down and continue studying. Today is the last reading day where we don't have classes, and tomorrow is the first day of finals.

Only one of my finals are actually scheduled, and it's tomorrow at 8 am... Wonderful. The rest of my exams are a free for all. The way BYU organizes final exams is that you have a week to take them. When you're ready, you line up at the testing center anywhere from 7 am to 9 pm to go in and take your test. I love this because this allows me to take all four of my exams by Saturday night so that I can fly home sooner. My flight for Seattle leaves early Sunday morning, and I am so excited to be able to spend a week there before heading off to my internship!

Once finals are over, I can promise you that I will start working out and eating better again! But for now, bring on the ice cream, root beer, better cheddar's, and easy cheese.

Thoughtful Thursday | When Opportunities Arise

“Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.” 

                                                                          –Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and author

I aspire to be one of the greatest journalists of our time. I do not wish for mediocrity. I wish to be the best. In order to accomplish this dream, it is my job to not wait for opportunities to come knocking. It is my job to chase down these opportunities, tackle them, and claim them for myself. I do not care if these occasions are inconvenient or require a little hard work and dedication on my part – it is the experience that will help me achieve my dreams.

As this semester draws to a close, I am forever grateful for the priceless experience I have received while working for the alumni relations department of BYU Magazine, and am ecstatic to see my first story in print by the time the next quarterly magazine is released. But the time has come to take these skills I have learned and build off of them in order to expand my talents. This summer I will be picking up and moving my life. Again. This time, to Kentucky. I will be a social media marketing intern through Bloc Marketing.

At this point, moving another 1,500 miles away doesn’t seem that bad after my recent moves from Washington to Utah and Florida. I am taking claim of an opportunity that I chased down, and will use these newfound talents to further my career in the field of communications. In this internship, I will learn to communicate with audiences more effectively and efficiently. It will definitely be a change from writing for a magazine, where which it is very passive and there is not a whole lot of interaction between me and the reader. Contrarily, this internship will successfully challenge me as I actively interact with audiences in real time.

So my message to you: Chase down those opportunities and take them! Do not worry about what others will think, the inconvenience it may cause, or the hard work it will require. If it brings you one step closer to achieving your dream, do it!

21-Day Challenge | Week 2

Week one of the 21-day challenge is over. How did you do? Did you skip a run one day? Did you slip up and eat a hot dog? Were you lacking motivation to get up and get active one morning? Don't worry, me too. But that doesn't mean you can't finish these three weeks! Take this day to recommit to why you even started getting fit. Go follow a Pinterest workout board or Twitter fitness account for motivation. Not going to lie, when I need the extra boost to get me out of bed and into my running shoes, I look at pictures of how I wish my body looked like on the Fitness Motivation account I follow on Twitter. It might sound odd, but this form of inspiration works for me! 

On Sunday, I procrastinated until 3 pm to go on my run, and now that it’s week two, the cardio has gone up to 35-45 minutes. I was convinced that I would have to walk/run to get through this. However, once I hit one mile, I realized that I had enough energy to go to two. That two miles turned into three, then four, then five. Finally, my joints started to ache as I went on 53 minutes and five miles, so I stopped. Never in my life have I run that far without stopping, and it was the best feeling I could ever imagine! I looked at my running app that stated that I had burned a little over 600 calories, and that’s when it hit me.

I know for a fact I have easily consumed over 600 calories in one sitting. Whether it was a Domino's chicken alfredo bread bowl, a double entrée of orange chicken and fried rice at Panda Express, or a carton of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream. It took no effort at all to eat that, albeit, delicious food. But after taking a full hour to run 5 miles, I wouldn’t dare give up all that effort for ten minutes of satiation. Instead, I would reward myself by supplying my body with food that will only further promote the level of fitness that I am trying to attain. Oranges, blueberries, tomatoes, eggs, spinach, whole wheat bread, fat free milk, water, water, water! I’ve decided to reward my body for its tremendous effort after a workout instead of maliciously punishing it by putting these sorts of processed foods into my body.

Now, splurging is okay! In fact, I would encourage designating one night a week where you indulge (moderately) in a not-so-healthy meal. This will help to eliminate episodes of binge eating throughout the week.

So go into week two with a new found confidence, and keep moving forward! And if you are new to the 21-day total body makeover challenge, click HERE to view the original post and join us!

Thoughtful Thursday | Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

With finals week fast approaching for those of us college students on the semester schedule, it is easy to stress about every single issue that life throws in our direction. Just last night I nearly had a meltdown because I broke my healthy eating routine and had Wendy's. I beat myself up all day, and then solved the issue by eating a doughnut. I see a vicious cycle forming here... But the point of the matter is, who cares if I have a doughnut every now and again? And, of course, there is a deeper metaphor at work here.

Will your life fall apart if you get a B+ in that class instead of an A-? I promise you, this will not ruin your life. And furthermore, don't let the stresses that school causes on its students effect your everyday life outside of the classroom. Try your best, and that's all you can do.

I've been freaking out because I might get a B- in one of my classes and a B in another. I kept telling myself that these grades were going to bring down my GPA significantly. However, once I took a step back and took into account the other three A's that I would be receiving this semester, I realized that even with these low grades, my GPA would still go up slightly. So if you're freaking out about something that is going to have an extremely minimal effect on your life as a whole, just take a step back and don't sweat the small stuff.