Week 1

It’s been a week since I officially posted my goals for the month. Today is a “rest day” in my marathon training program (actually a cross training day, but I was tired...), but for some reason, instead of just resting from going to the gym, at 6 this morning, I rested from a lot more...

I slept in until 9:30, talked on the phone until 10:15, THEN decided to get up. It wasn’t entirely a lazy day: I did get a lot of things done around the house that needed to be done. But I didn’t actually shower and change out of my pajamas until about 3 this afternoon. Then I was sitting here deciding whether I should practice my drum for the pipe band competition this weekend, go out and get some work done, try and fix the mirrors that seem to be simultaneously falling off my car, etc. Then I decided, I’m going to update my blog! Responsible, I know...

Week 1 has been a good one. I’ve been running 3 miles consistently and doing some good strength training workouts after. I’ve been a little tired and worn out due to lack of sleep and drinking more liquids and gatorade than eating, but altogether I think I’m making good progress.

I guess I can’t say that I’ve been eating better if I’ve been eating less, but on the bright side, I HAVE been eating less junk food... :)

I’ve done pretty good at listening to uplifting music and Conference talks this month. I’m loving listening to the talks. It has definitely helped put my mind and heart in a good place. I recently decided that although it is a good goal for a certain period of time, I will NOT be listening to only church music forever. I’ve been going CRAZY without my running mixes! I have a hard time running without a good beat to listen to. I also have found myself singing popular songs randomly out of nowhere...

So, life is good.

Here goes week 2.

Lift Your Vision!

I haven't written on this in a while! Two months, and so much has happened.

It's interesting to look back and see how much changes in a short period of time. I've had a lot of both good and hard experiences, and feel like I'm better because of them.

I turned 24 last week. I tell people I turned 26, because I'm pretty sure I've aged more in the last few years than any person should in that space of time.

We had a barbecue in the back yard, and noticed a "sundog," a rainbow circle around the sun. I'm told means something about the weather, but I came up with a theory of my own. It was a rainbow, signifying God's promise to never again put me through the flood of emotions I've gone through this last year. Like Noah! Haha. I thought it was funny anyways...

I've done some reflecting on myself and who I am, and although there are good things I see, I'm still not happy with myself and the progress I've made. I want MORE! So, I made some goals that I think will help me with that.

1. First of all, I feel like my spirituality needs to improve. I always say my prayers, and read my scriptures somewhat regularly, but I still feel like I have a hard heart, and would like to change that. I was pondering it in Church, and there was an amazing talk in sacrament meeting on hymns and how they are a form of worship and inviting the spirit, and I decided that that's what I want in my everyday life, not just on Sundays, and what better way than through music! I LOVE music. Singing the hymns in meetings is one of my favorite things, and during the week, I listen to music to "unwind" like most people probably watch TV.

So, I decided that for the month of June I'm going to only listen to Church/Spiritually Uplifting music, and conference talks. I loaded a bunch of them on my Ipod, and have been enjoying it already.

2. Like most people, I go in and out of good eating and excercise habits. Lately I've been on the "out" end of that more than "in," and I'd like to change that. I haven't made any specific goals about my eating yet, which will probably prove to be a bad thing, but I want to start by being more conscious about what I eat, and not eat out so much.

3. This one's the clincher. I love to run. Weird, I know. I decided I liked it after highschool, and before my mission I trained and ran my own little Half Marathon. 12 miles. I would say this is a great accomplishment, but it was in process of training for a full marathon, which I failed to do.

I recently decided that I was going to start exercising more regularly, more than longboarding, and I have a gym pass, so Tuesday morning I got up (late, as usual) and headed to the rec center to start. I was running, and originally planned on just doing a quick one, but the church music must have inspired me a little too much, because I realized that I wanted more than just good habits: I wanted to do something that would make me a better person. So, I decided to train for and run a Marathon.

A Marathon...

The minute I thought that, I almost turned off the treadmill and went back home to bed. It made me tired just thinking about it. But I thought about what I want in life and who I want to be, and I want to be the kind of person that does hard things. I want to be someone who puts comfort and ease aside to do something that will make him better. So, here goes...

I'm going to run the a marathon on the by September. Oh SNAP!!!

So, those are my goals. I think I really outdid myself this time around, but feel confident about completing them.

One of my mission companions and I always talked about how important it was to get the people we taught to open their eyes, lift their vision, and see the larger, eternal picture. I hope I'll do that better myself and do better at becoming who I want to be.