We can do hard things.

   This last weekend I went with my internship group to complete a ropes course and it was such a neat experience for me and I just wanted to share a few thoughts. There were things we did that were really scary. like falling from 40 feet in a swing scary, and jumping from the top of a tree to a wobbly tall platform 6 feet out scary. As a group we accomplished tasks that of course seemed impossible through creativity, determination, and a little perseverance. At one point I was walking a wire, reaching out to my partner hanging out of a tree just to have enough balance to make the last 3 feet or so to the finish line. Doing all these things was a reminder to me that we create so many limitations in our heads that we let dictate what we do.
    When we were jumping from the tree, one of our research leaders, who is a professor at BYU, talked about how even though we knew we were safe, and harnessed in, some of us really struggled taking that leap. He explained to us that our autonomic nervous systems freaks out like we're going to die when we face something scary even if our conscious self knows we are safe. This is the fancy way of saying that our bodies are wired to elicit certain responses (such as an elevated heart rate, sweating, locking up, etc) when danger is perceived. Knowing logically that we are not in any real danger though, we can recognize our body's responses as a trained reaction rather than something actually rooted in potential harm. Our minds are incredible but it's important to know the difference between what's in our heads and what actually poses a threat.
     It's been said before that working out is 50% perspiration and 50% determination and I fully agree! So much about exercise is in our heads. Motivating ourselves to get moving, pushing ourselves so we can grow stronger, run farther, last longer.  Sometimes I get to a point where my legs are burning and I'm sweating like a pig and the thought pops in my head that I've done enough, I can take it easy on myself and cut my time short for the day. Then I think back on the hard things I've done throughout my life both physically and mentally, and I realize that I take myself for granted sometimes. I can do hard things. In the last year, I've gone from never having stepped foot into a gym, to working out, regularly, for over an hour at a time, on a fairly regular basis. I'm still trying to get into the swing of things figuring out my schedule between work, my internship, and my volunteer work, but I'm doing it! This last year has been tough in ways but I am making things happen and am working my butt off (literally) and it feels great.

It really is wonderful to be young with the world at your fingertips

<3 K

B-E-A-utiful.

People who give workout advice often suggest a reward system so that you can treat yourself as you progress through stages towards your end goal. For me, I normally like to treat myself with any form of frozen creamy goodness- milkshakes, smoothies, fruit bars, fro yo, or straight up ice cream. These are all sugary and somewhat defeat the purpose of working out SO I have tried to find new ways to reward myself that are more conducive to the lifestyle changes I'm making. That being said, I have discovered some great products that I wanted to share with everyone. I was going to do these all in one post but decided that would be a LONG post haha. so we'll call this a mini series for now. Stay posted!
I have never been a lipstick wearer, in fact it's still a newer thing for me. However, there is something to be said for a rockin shade of lipstick. It's a great way to polish off an outfit. Elizabeth Taylor put it well when she said, "Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together". Whether you feel like a mess or not, lipstick helps pull everything together. This is by far my favorite lipstick I've tried so far-

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Rasberry Pie

It's as good as it sounds. A lot of lipsticks just make me feel like I have chalk on my lips (ok, maybe not THAT bad- but bad). This is really moisturizing and almost feels like a good chapstick BUT there is the coverage that should be expected from a lipstick and the colors are oh so fantastic. I have this in Candy Apple which is a coral-y kind of red, Rasberry Pie which is just a darker pink, and Berry Smoothie which is a more natural looking lip color. While moisturizing lipstick has a rep for not lasting as long, the first two colors I mentioned are bolder and tend to stain my lips a bit so after it's faded a bit of lip gloss helps keep the look going longer. These are great and I plan on getting more of them to add to my growing collection.

What lipsticks have you tried and loved? I'm still a newbie with this and would love to hear what's worked for you! 

<3 Kayla

hellooooo!

Wow I feel like it's been forever since I posted! Things started picking up a LOT the close that the new school year came. Here's what's new with us.

weight loss: After my 8 lb breakthrough I gained and lost a few pounds back and forth and haven't been working out very much since school started so I was afraid I had gained most of it back BUT, when I left the gym yesterday I was between 150-151 which means I've lost about 10 pounds!!!! I was so pumped because that is the absolute most progress i've seen in a straight shot for me. It's deff been hard sometime but I have stuck with this and have integrated this more into my lifestyle and and reaping the benefits of diligence! I still have more to go but, I'm 1/3 through my goal which means I'm deff on track for my abs at graduation. heck yes and booyah.

school: I'm loving school so far this semester. It is keeping me more busy than I would like but I love my classes. Ok, most of them at least. I only have one class I'm not crazy about and I think most of that has to do with the fact that it's an evening class. The reading is interesting though so that's good. Unrelated to classwork, I'm also LOVING seeing people on campus again. Especially friends from freshman year who have recently returned from missions- awesome! so that is school. I'm nervous about applying to grad schools/not getting in but since I'm only applying to a few programs as opposed to as many as I can get my hands on, I'll have to just not be harsh on myself if I don't get in right away.

work: I'm still working at SF and just today told my boss, if he doesn't find a replacement really soon.... I could probably just stay on because by the time he finds someone and has them trained, my schedule will be easing up and I'd be able to work more anyways. so we'll see if that happens. Since another employee just got a job offer elsewhere, he'd have to find 2 replacements ASAP to keep the office functioning which would be hard to do so I'm thinking i'll just hang around here at least until after graduation when I can get a real job in social work or something.

Steven: my wonderful, wonderful husband. He is back in school too and although I don't think he enjoys school as much as I do, he's doing well so far. He's having a hard time finding work so keep us in your prayers as we're hoping he gets one soon! He's having quite a bit of fun with all of his frisbee stuff too. He's captaining at least two teams, playing with 4 teams I think right now although only a couple of them hold practices and such. The others are just for fun. We also recently discovered that he had skin cancer! yikes! He had an abnormal growth in his arm and had it checked out and removed only to find out with the lab results that it was cancerous!!! I'm so glad he had it checked out though so we could nip it in the butt and get it out. Hopefully that will be the last we see of that!

So that's about all that's new with us! I realize this was long, but it had been quite a while. Stay posted on new updates with our apartment as I have been at work decorating and rearranging things :) I wish I could do more though!!

Hope you all are having a wonderful friday and don't forget to cheer the cougars on tomorrow at the BYU-UTAH game!!!

<3 K

WOOO!

so I'm not going to take up too much time tonight because I have other things to do... but, just wanted to let you all know...

this is Kayla happy and home from the gym...

I'VE LOST 8 POUNDS!!!! =) 

my "pounds destroyed" jar is filling up and I'm feeling so great! It's amazing. My confidence has soared as I've tackled something so difficult for me and stuck with it. Reaping the rewards from this has been so sweet. Oh, and remember when I bought myself those shorts for summer? Well the part I didn't include is I bought one size that fit comfortably, and the other in the next size down. Those smaller shorts now fit perfectly. it's great. I'm kicking butt. The best part about this whole thing, is it's something that I've been in on with Heavenly Father. Sound strange? Well, it started with a workout poster that quoted the scripture which, to paraphrase, says you can do anything with God. I thought about that and loved the application of that scripture to working out. God wants us to take care of our bodies so why wouldn't he help me take on this challenge for a body makeover/lifestyle change?? So I started praying about it and did you notice I was also focusing on scripture study this whole time? I completely, 100% believe that is what has made the difference this time for me in trying to get back in shape.

Heavenly Father is wonderful. He's been here for me the whole way so far and while I've worked on my 11 weeks left of summer, I've felt his love, encouragement and inspiration so many times. He's helped me push myself and bless me for my efforts. I am so filled with joy right now.

And while we're talking about my "11 weeks of summer"... I feel like I've grown a lot in the past several weeks and become a stronger person. I've felt more like myself than I have in a while, as the stress of school and work and life changes had taken a bit of a toll on me. While I haven't been blogging as regularly in the past couple of weeks I have had a lot on my mind but I'll summarize with this:

     Progression is an essential part of living- truly living at least. There is a bliss that comes from success and growth that cannot be attained from other sources. I'm well known among those who know me well though, to take on more than I can chew- regularly. As I'm coming up on my final year as an undergrad, I've spent a lot of time planning, career studying, test prepping, scheduling, and thinking way way WAY too much. I have some big decisions coming up soon and I finally realized that sometimes, we need to not worry so much about where we are going, but focus in on where we stand. 

Before planning my work as a counselor, my time as a mommy, my vacations for some time in the future, I should come back to my life as a student and a wife and just enjoy it. Life will come when it comes. In the meantime, why not just sit back, enjoy the ride and get to the good stuff one day at a time :) so I won't be posting a new goal every week for the rest of the summer. I'm going to focus on the little lovelies, keep you posted on my journey for weight loss... forget planning. we'll play it by ear and see where we go from there.

<3 K

life.

( I wrote this a couple of weeks ago... sorry it's just getting posted now!)

Hey guys! so again this week, I've had a lot going on and instead of turning to new goals to turn to, I've just decided to keep working on my goal from last week. I figured this is ok because technically I was shooting to do more than one thing every day. I'm proud to say though that I'm still staying on track with them though so yay! They are well on their way to becoming habits! I did miss my workout monday but that was ONLY because Steven let my workout clothes sit in the wash for a couple of days... and then when I re did the load, he forgot to put them into the dryer while I was at work... and we had company coming later that night. but, I got back on it last night ANDDDDDD, after my workout, I weighed myself and realized I have dropped 6 pounds :) Now granted, I think our scale at home is off, and that hasn't all been lost in this last week. But it has been lost since I first started trying to watch my diet and gradually ease into working out again. I smiled the whole way home from the gym. I already had 1 marble in my jar from my efforts last week but throwing in an additional 5 was so satisfying :) i may be getting a little addicted.
Not only am I getting into the whole exercise thing, but I've been faithfully reading my scriptures every day which always makes such a difference (especially when it's how you start your day). I feel like I've been a lot more in tune with what Heavenly Father wants for me right now as I've had a lot of questions on my mind regarding the not too far future. I've also felt more receptive to the blessings he lays before me on a daily basis and that has been such a sweet reminder of his love for us as well as a needed dose of perspective in this crazy life.
Truly though, life is good guys. It really is so much about growth. It doesn't matter who you are, what your background is, or what you believe, if you are not progressing in this life, what else is there? I understand the idea that we're here to live it up, and we should! But what kind of a life is it if you leave this world no better than you came into it? Having left no imprint on individuals you've spent your time with?
That being said, Steven and I have really been trying to be extra thoughtful of each other recently. Partially because we forget sometimes that we're supposed to be doing that always :) also though, because we are coming up on our 1 year anniversary!! and this week in particular is Steven's birthday so lots to celebrate! I'm so excited because I got him something he's been saying for months that he wanted. He has no idea what I picked out for him though and it's driving him a little nuts as he can't stand the suspense of surprises :) it's great. We were also planning on seeing the new batman movie but unfortunately we couldn't get good tickets until next week. I have the 24th off though for Pioneer Day so I reserved tickets at the imax theatre at matinee price- heck yeah!
For those of you who are not familiar with Pioneer Day, it's a state wide holiday in Utah that we hold to celebrate our pioneer heritage and their trek across the country back in the day. It's a wonderful thing. I'll enjoy my day off :)

hope you all are having a wonderful week! any fun plans for the weekend?? Or for Pioneer Day, if you celebrate it?

<3 K

Catching up!

So I realized today that last weeks post never actually got published... so it's late and I never did the 2nd post for that week that I promised. but that's because we moved, and I had way too much to do haha. anyways, we are loving the space in our new apartment, truly, it is great! we still have some things to be put away but overall, things are going pretty good.  AND even with all the craziness of last week I still managed to stay on top of my goal for the week (for the most part) which was to wake up at least 2 hours before having to actually be anywhere. While waking up early isn't exactly fun, I would make sure to get to bed at a decent time and then having that extra time in the morning was SO nice. I had time to eat breakfast, maybe tidy up some things, and have plenty of time to get ready for work and get there early! it was great.

I've checked on the goal for this week but at this point in time I didn't think it was really that important haha. I think it had to do with cleaning a particular part of the apartment every day so that I would stay on top of cleaning easily. Since we are still in the process of unpacking though, it didn't seem to be the right time for that goal. While I hadn't written this down anywhere, I mentally decided that this week I wanted to read my scriptures for half an hour in the morning, say prayers right after, and then get in at least a 1/2 hour workout for the day. that combination of accomplishments was what I wanted to get done each day for this week. On Monday I woke up late so I packed my workout clothes and headed to the gym when I got off work.

 BEST IDEA EVER

 I went to the gym after work again yesterday and I decided this is the absolute best time for me to work out. It does not require me to wake up any earlier, I come home for the night in a great mood and totally energized to either get stuff done at home or do something fun with Steven, and I can enjoy the rest of the evening guilt free because I have everything important done for the day. Also, tracking how much calories I burn right after work has set me up to not want to eat junk all night which is when I typically am tempted by fast food dinners, desserts after a long day, and mindless munching in front of the TV. I'm SO stoked about doing this and so far this week has been great. I've met my goal every day so far and we're halfway through the week. I will have sexy abs by graduation dang it! I finally feel like I have made a break through in my efforts to be healthier and I feel like this is something that I can easily stick to and I'm just so freaking excited to watch my body change as I go through this. I'm going to take a before picture asap but I'm not going to post it until I have an awesome after pic to stick next to it haha- sorry!

I also saw this cool idea on pinterest that I'm totally going to do. You have one jar with marbles representing every pound you want to lose and a second jar to add marbles to for every pound you have lost. What a simple way to visually see where you're at in your weight loss goals! and who wouldn't want to stick a marble from your fat jar to your skinny jar??

pounds destroyed- love it! haha

How do you guys find is the best way to stay motivated when you set goals for yourself?

Here's to being a better you!

<3 K