Five for August

Ohhhh August, you snuck up on me like a creepy, semi-aggressive cat.

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Currently, I’m feeling a little brain dead. It’s Friday so that’s awesome of course. But I have a lot going on in my head as well as my heart and haven’t quite been able to force it out of my fingers into written words yet. So that will have to wait, but I would expect something a little heavy coming soon.

Lucky for you all, my Portland blogger friend over at Babbling Brookelyn tagged me in a fun post, so I’m going to play along.

But first, things you should know about August:

I’m going to be following this ab routine on a daily basis for the month of August; I found it in an email that Active.com sent me. It's simple enough, and the plank will be progressive, so hopefully I can have my time back up near the 4-5 minute mark by the end of the month.

 

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I’m going to be following the 21-day sugar detox starting this Monday, August 5^th. The detox is appealing to me for a variety of different reasons, but the bottom-line is that I’m looking to feel better, and sleep better

On to the main event....

FIVE things I have a passion for:

•  Mornings. 2 years ago I wouldn’t have said this. But mornings are growing on me so hard – I     love getting up, being productive, soaking in a sunrise, with a cup of coffee in hand.
•  Health. This is a broad category, and as I continue to get older the definition continues to       change for me. It goes far beyond bettering your body, and getting that cardio/weights in. What are you fueling your precious body with? What are you doing to recover after you tear your muscles to shreds? And are you taking the time off physically, mentally, and emotionally; something you sometimes need more than anything else?
• Joy. It’s a beautiful word, and a beautiful emotion. Again, it has a broad range of what it may mean to other people. Yet one of my ‘mid-year’ self goals is to speak more of joy than darkness. There’s also a strong chance the word will end up tattooed on my foot at some point this year…sorry mom.
•  My friends. I like to encompass my family in this category, because of course my family are my friends. I want to clarify something… the song ‘I get by with a little help from my friends’ couldn’t ring truer. I would NOT get by without my friends – now, more than ever. I have amazing, beautiful, gracious, patient, loving friends all over the country, and it brings me so much joy.
• Music. I think the below picture pretty much sums it up. Music has the ability to bring me to tears, or put a stupid ass smile on my face, within minutes. It’s more than just music.

FIVE things I want to do before I die:

• Start a family, and raise them well.
• Own a dog. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.
• Have a home gym. I’m not talking like a gaudy, over the top gym, but just something reasonable.
• Travel more. This is vague, and I don’t have specific countries nailed down, but I will admit that the only time I’ve left the country is to do the typical Cancun trip. I really want to eat gelato in Italy.
• Run the Chicago marathon.

FIVE books or magazines I’ve read lately:

This is bad guys. I’m not sure I can come up with five. I read a lot of blogs, and online articles, but as far as books/magazines…

•     I’m prety sure I’ve read Andrew’s most recent copy of the ESPN magazine.
•     I’m still reading the Happiness Project. AKA I have barely been reading at all.
•     I WANT to read a Million Miles in a Thousand Years
•     I’m starting to read the book Strengths Finder 2.0 for work….
•     OK OK I promise I will read more. Gosh I’m a sucky English Major.

FIVE Favorite Movies:

I’ll save you all from having to read some thrown together, horrific list. I’m not a movie guru – I hardly ever watch movies due to my severe inability to sit still. I know this is probably breaking my movie buff friend’s (Kyle) heart, but I don’t have five favorite movies. I’ll leave you with this – I’m still obsessed with the movie Silver Linings Playbook. It will probably be a forever favorite.

FIVE Places I would Love to travel to:

-Ireland

-Italy

-Brazil

-Greece

-South Africa

I just pulled those countries out of my butt.

I think this is the part where I’m supposed to tag other bloggers to play… but sadly I’m not sure what bloggers consistently read my blog, so I will hold off on that. However, if you feel like playing along and writing a post about this, then tag you’re it!

Hope you enjoyed these fun little facts. I also hope you enjoy your weekend. Mine will be full of swimming, biking, running, and hopefully a little bit of sunshine.

Just how I like it.

Cheers!