End of the Year Recap (actually done early this year)

I am not going to pretend that 2019 was a dumpster fire, but it was maybe a small trashcan fire?

The End.

Kidding.

I am not scared of hard work or long hours but I do want my time to be MY TIME and as I look back over the year, I cannot really remember when I could say that I had that… but rather than focusing on the negative, I am going to point out the positives of the year that have helped me rise from the ashes and become the phoenix I know I will be in 2020.

To start: Book Club. Yup. I started a book club. Consisting of 8 gals with different histories, different points of view, and of various generations we all spoke our minds and rejoiced in the ability to share with no judgement. In the #becomingabetterme campaign I was not sure that fiction could help, but it really did. Opened my eyes to books I never on my own would have picked, and forced me to step outside of my comfort zone with said books.

Next: Found out I was going to be a MiMi. Lets not pretend (again) that at first this was not terrifying news. My daughter becoming a mother at 20 and me a grandmother at 43… *shivers* (will come back to this)

Then: Checking one of the biggest bucket list items off my list. NYC! Could not have had more fun (or walked more!) I did have to uninstall my work email on my phone because I was NOT going to let work continue to hold me down while I was taking a much needed break.  Side note: the whole point of PTO is mentally take a break, to regroup, and spend time with friends and loved one – NOT continue to answer emails when you are 900 miles away! Anywho, trip was sooo needed and soo fun. Even having our flight canceled and having to stay an extra night with no clean clothes (or suitcase) was an interesting part of the adventure!

Continuing into the year: Things at work got rather rocky, and that was when I knew it was time to move on. When a company you work with lets one of its most loyal and conviction driven employees go, you know that it not the place for you, so I put in my notice and did the most scary thing I have ever done…. I signed up for real estate brokers classes to pursue my dream. A three week – 90 hour course, that you had to pass to be eligible to take the state exam. ***here is where we jump back to the whole MiMi thing… I had to pass 3 tests in the class to get my certificate of eligibility. The three tests were 100 questions each and collectively I had to get a 75% to pass. The first test I got an 87 out of 100, the second I got an 83 out of 100 – which meant I had to get 55 questions right to pass the class. Sounds easy right? With the scores of the last two, I was pretty confident I would be fine. EXCEPT the night before the final test my daughter goes into labor. I got to the hospital about 9:45 and it was clear it was going to be a wee hours of the morning birth. I emailed my instructor to tell him the status  – which I did not receive an reply since it was the middle of the night.

INSERT ADDITIONAL ISSUE ON THE SAME NIGHT…(I know I was not going to bring up the bad, but I felt this was important information since it had to do with the obstacles in front of me during all of this) plumbing back up in the house had us calling professionals in to extract the water and clear our lines all while Kat is in labor. Fun night.

So, I officially became a grandmother at 5:27am on November 25th to the most beautiful little girl in the whole world.

Back to class – I didn’t get home from the hospital until 8am so there was no way I was going to be taking any test. As we expected the plumbers/restoration team to come back at 10AM, I needed a power nap, so that is what happened. I did finally receive an email from my instructor with the information I needed to take the final test the next day. Done and Done! I took it and again, flying colors! 88 questions out of the 100. I was them eligible to take the state exam!

Fast forward to December 23rd: I am sitting here at the dining room table, coffee cup almost empty, and two pieces of paper that say I passed the national section AND the state section of the state exam for my Indiana Real Estate Brokers license.

Now, as I sit here not unemployed, but rather, in business for myself I am scared a little. I am not scared of hard work, and I am not above putting in the hours required to make a solid living, but part of this career change is more about taking my own life back. I do not want to work for someone who is not going to appreciate the time I put in, or the knowledge I  have to offer, or even more than that ME AS A PERSON…  and since I do value myself, this path is just one more way to #becomingabetterme.

I am well aware that there should really be more wins in the course of 365 days, but 2019 kind of fell short, so here is my promise for the upcoming year.

1. More gym – healthier me
2.  5ks – its go time again, Cupcake
3.  travel… travel… travel (even if they are just simple trips a few days at a time!)
4.  pottery class – I meant it, I want to make my own huge coffee mug
5.  spend time with my kids and grandbaby and friends
6.  #becomingabetterme continues

Simple really, I had a fire of a year, and now its time to fly! Cheers to the upcoming year. It will be the best year ever!

 

 

Not Quite Four Percent

Well, I promised to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly of this journey – so there is some ugly, some bad, and some good in this particular tale. So, again, I follow through with my promise. You are welcome.

In the last post, I was down five lbs, right? Well, wouldn’t you know that three days before weigh in I got on the scales and of course, I gained 1.2lbs back. I know that in the grand scheme of things, that is small potatoes (like legit, it could have been, I made potatoes to go with the chicken for dinner), but when there is $20 on the line, it becomes a freakin Idaho sized potato!

Not that I wasn’t going to the gym as much as possible, but when your work schedule consists of night meetings and there is NO WAY IN HELL you are going to the gym before work (more specifically before coffee!), you have to make the tough decisions – and the decision was made to skip the gym when I wasn’t home before 9:30.

Anywho, back to the gym, staying strong on the diet, more water throughout the day – you know, all of the things you do to get the metabolism moving faster.

So weigh in day… wear thin clothes, take off shoes and jewelry, go pee before hand (we all know we do this!) and of course I was back to a flat 5lbs lost. dang it! So close, yet sooo far!

I know it wasn’t the goal I set, I know there were other people who made it, but you know what else I know – I know I tried. I know I got back on the wagon. Most of all, I remembered how much I missed being at the gym and how good it feels to know there is a change happening. I don’t have to lose 7.6lbs in a month to be successful – I just have to know I am doing the right things and treating myself right in the process.

So… 

Good – I lost 5 lbs and spent time in the gym again

Bad – I didn’t meet the goal set out for me.

Ugly – I lost freakin $20 in the processes… guess that is the price of a lesson learned?

Either way, this journey of #becomingabetterme is no where near over, and I consider this a #nonscalevictory – learning took place, and isn’t that what life is all about?

 

Damn, My Butt Hurts!

You laugh, but I am feeling it!

It has been a long time (too long in fact) since I actually got to go to the gym multiple times in one week. Well, with the healthy life style change at everyone at the office and the 28/4% challenge, it was time to allow peer pressure to be the foot to the butt I needed.

I went to the gym last Thursday and decided I would push (or punish, whichever word you think is better) myself with some slow and stead incline. My mile took me 22 mins because I did slow my pace, but I felt it.

Then there was the weekend… those days, lets not talk about those days.

Bringing on Monday, I didn’t want to, but I had to go with the elliptical. (for those of you not aware, please go waaaayyy back to the beginning of my blog and look up Fraidy Cat. In a nutshell, I hate the elliptical – more than I hate Monday with no coffee, and I HATE both Mondays and no coffee!) Treadmills were full and I really felt like going to the bike would be like starting over or cheating. So I got on. Not 100% comfortable with being there, but hey, you go with what’s available right? So I got to the half mile mark and nodded because I hadn’t died and I was actually making really good time. For posterity and my own reference, I snapped my picture – 14.48…what the heck? Really??!

I stewed on it on the way home and was pretty sure I had never gotten under 14.50. When I finally had a chance to go back and look I was right! My best mile at that point was 14.51! So woot to me! I PR’d on a random Monday!

Then last night I had a board meeting… allll the way on the north side even. I knew it was going to be late, but when I got done and pulled in my drive way at 9:40, no one was home so I quickly changed clothes, hopped back in the car and scooted off to the gym again. Apparently having a “suck it elliptical attitude from the get go really gets the competitive juices flowing – I PR’d AGAIN! New one mile time 14.43!!

By the time I got done I was pretty well spent and knew I still needed a shower and bed since it was still a work night. I got home around 10:45, hopped in the showed, dryed my hair and then straight to bed.

Kicking the elliptical square in the tail feathers really got my tail feather going. I am truly sore, but blissfully happy about it! So, for those of you looking at the clock, it is 7:49 on a random Tuesday and sore tired butt is going right back to the gym to do it all over again!

This #becomingabetterme takes some work, and I ready to do my part tonight!

 

28 days and 4%

I have been on this journey now for over 3 years, and since the beginning, I have only been progressing. Never really put any time frames on it, just worked on me and at a pace I felt comfortable with. Well, I have taken it to the next level.

I know I have done several races and that they are technically “challenges against others” but they were more about the personal experience and how well I did each of the challenges and how after more and more 5Ks, my times got better with every race, and even more than that I could do it. I had the strength and endurance to finish without dying. OK, OK… so dying was not something that I thought was really going to happen…. but the first couple I struggled my way to the finish line. The more I did, the easier they got of course. Point is, I have never really done challenges against others.

As of Tuesday, that changed. The perk of working for a company that cares about the mental, financial, and PHYSCAL health of its employees is the fun cool ways to make the atmosphere better.  So, here is where the 28/4 comes in…

We started a challenge that is more fair than BIGGEST LOSER and less scary than P90X. At the start of the 28 days we weighed in (there was one person who saw the weight, so it never had to be posted or said out loud, then the goal is to lose 4% of your total weight. Although it is still about MY progress, the rest of the story is there is money involved… so I had to put $20 (with the bossman matching that money) as a sign that I believe I will not only meet my goal, but will be the only one to do it.

The truth is, I would love to see everyone succeed, but as always, I am scared that I wont. I know I should not be that way and have exceeded several of my own expectations, but again… those were all on my own, this time there are others involved.

So, 5 days in and I am down 3.(something) lbs.. hoping to post something new in roughly 25 days just to say I succeeded. Either way, if I am looking for silver lining, then it would be to say that I am trying something else new….

 

End of 2017 – So, I am a Procrastinator

If I had to rank 2017 on my “Top years of my life” I would say it was not in the Top 10… Not the Top 20 even. 2017 was really a rough year for me. Especially on the heels of 2016, which happened to be freaking amazing. Do not get me wrong, there were good times, I am not saying it was all bad, but it was very challenging and there were several changes.

You already know about the cruise (highlight), Kokomo experience (low), job change (highlight and scary experience), but you dont know about is the way the year ended… including how I ended the Log Blog – Making the Miles Count. The last post was in September, so Oct – Dec are a mystery to you…. did I make it to my 500 Miles in 2017?! Short answer: YES I DID!

October was a very “walkie” month for me as I spent a lot of time with vendors walking my properties and getting quotes, so I got in roughly 65 miles that month. Then November we decided we were going to start looking for a bigger house so we started heavy duty packing, purging, and cleaning – racked up 80 miles that month. (I believe most of those steps were to and from the trash can as I purged WAY more than my hubs expected!) Then December – another crazy month! With the Christmas season we had a tree to fill so there was a lot of mall walking, and still more cleaning, and then once our house was on the market – we had to find something to do during showings, so those hours we window shopped a lot.  Grand total of miles for Dec was 68 miles.

So for my Log Blog – I succeed. I am proud of that.

What I am not proud of is how in all of the chaos and I let ME get away from me. The person who goes to the gym to release the stress, the person who take a challenge head on (even if I talk about how I dont want to do it and am scared, I still move forward), and the me who learned what it felt like to healthy and happy at the same time and not allow myself to eat my feelings… that girl got lost in 2017.

I guess as I sit here and reflect on what all happened at the end of 2017, I have to give myself a bit of a truth biscuit to chew on… maybe a glass of water so I dont choke on the crumbs, because although I did fall back a few steps (and gained back a few more lbs than I wanted to), I did make it HERE. To the new house, still at (and loving) the new job, with new adventures in front of me. Not only that, but I am back at the gym at least 2 times a week. I am seriously thinking about finding a new Mr T… or maybe this time I will go with a Mrs T? A trainer with a different perspective on exercise, someone to learn more from – or even to build on what my 1st Mr T taught me.  Who knows, I am unpredictable after all 🙂

I guess to sum up my 2017 – not my finest year… but hey, just like on the spartan course, there are hills and there are valleys… I consider 2017 a hill… a muddy, slopped, rocky, and never ending hill… I just need to look at 2018 as the slide down the other side and continue on this journey of #becomingabetterme and make this year what I want of it!

 

Log Blog: Hello September

I understand that this a little late, but you have to understand I have been in mourning…

The Christmas of 2014 my husband bought me a Garmin Vivofit and in the instruction booklet it stated the battery would last about a year. Well, September 20, 2017 it finally pooped out.

Because of this lil dead battery I have been completely lost. RIP lil batteries, I cannot wait to get you replaced (and to ease my suffering I even bought myself a few extra colored watch bands!)

I know that I have been able to get to the gym about once a week for an extra 1-2 miles a week… then the half mile walk in and out of the office at least once a day.

So if I am doing simple math, I am looking at roughly 1.5 miles Monday thru Friday (that is 20 work days) = 30miles

Then once a week adding another 1.5 for gym visits (that is 4 extra counts) = 6 miles

Then I was trying really hard to make sure I did a little extra on the weekends so I am going to say that each of the weekends I did about 4 miles… (that is 5 weekends) = 20miles

SO to do a monkey-kinda-math breakdown, as I did above, I would say I have walked 56 miles in September.

I know this isn’t an exact number, but I am going to count this!

Keeping a pretty good run with this 50 miles a month so far! Winter is coming, we will see if I  have enough grit to keep it going!!!

Hello May, June, July, and August – Making the Miles Count MORE! (Log Blog)

I am not going to sit here and bore you with the details of why I have gone off the grid for the last few months, but I will say I think I am back.

I can say that with the craziness of the old job (yes, I said old job – and I will get into that here shortly), and starting at a new place (again I will go into that too), I have not really logged every mile like I was. I can say with 100% certainty that I made my goal! I promise.

Here are the basic breakdowns and why I know I did it:

MAY – I was still in Kokomo. Yes, Kokomo. Like living away from home to get the community up there leased. I was walking the building at least 3 times a day and there were three flights, two wings, and 64 apartments… so at the end of the day (which was sometimes not over until 10pm), I would look at my Garmin and see 3+ miles. This was my life Monday – Friday and then home on the weekend. So even if I did NOTHING on the weekend I was still looking at minimum of 15 miles a work week… and we all know I don’t do NOTHING. Even going to Walmart requires walking so “no steps on the weekend” was an impossibility. Lets just call it basic math… 3miles/day times 5days/week times 4weeks/month (3x5x4) equals 60 miles. See GOAL!

JUNE – June was a busy month. Not only was I still kind of in Kokomo, but my daughter graduated high school, we moved our main office, my birth month, my daughter’s open house, and I know I am missing something… but I can get my point across with this. As I stated, I was still in Kokomo training the woman who would be the manager there, not only giving her the tours, but still showing and renting apartments there. I will say that I didn’t walk as much once I started  training, but I can say, there were 2 miles a days every day I was there. I had to squeeze in Kats grad and the open house… the shopping for that put me at a total of 6 miles over the two shopping days. Then coming back to Indy and trying to get things packed and ready for the move, I had a few days in there I racked up 5 miles. Crazy I know, but true. As a matter of fact I worked on my birthday to get the main move done and between that Friday and Saturday I had 9 miles in. Now I know I am throwing small numbers at you, but those numbers add up. So for simple math sake, lets say I only did 2 miles every day… 2miles per day times 30 days in June equals another 60 miles. GOAL AGAIN.

JULY – I am not going to pretend I have an specific dates that give me more miles than the norm, but I did manage to stop working 60-75 hours a week and get back to a more regular schedule and get in some gym time. As I put in my notice for the 28th o f July as my last day with Partners, I did get to do a little more than just work and sleep, so I am just going to say 1.75 miles a day for 31 days = 54.25 miles…  I added an extra .25 miles per day because the new office put the bathroom WAAAY at the other end of the hall so there was a lot of walking after drinking my 2 cups of coffee and my big bottles of water everyday. So I am still claiming  goal.

So here we are in August… Aug 1 was the start of my new job. This I can do a little more mathing to get to my numbers (I know the month isn’t over, but I can still average it all out in the end. To start I didn’t get a parking pass on day one… or even day 10 for that matter, so by day three I was looking to see exactly how far from the lot I had to park in to the office door it really was…. over .41 miles. yeah… so walked from my car to the office and then back  – A MINIMUM of .82 miles a day. Yeah, damn near a mile a day just to and from the office! Then on day 14 I got my pass. It knocked down my miles from .41 to .28… so still a half mile from car to door. Then you add in GenCon (glorious glorious GenCon) HOLY COW! In 3.5 days of this gaming extravaganza we racked up more than 18 miles! So, math – 18 plus (gonna say 2 miles per day – minus the GenCon days) two miles times 31 days minus 3.5 days = 2×27.5+18 = 73 miles for the month. GOAL ACHEIVED.

As I head into another month and continue on the journey of  #becomingabetterme and continuing to learn more about housing – just in a different form, I know I am on the right path and September will prove to be another successful month. Just wait and see faithful readers. I got this.

Hello April – Log Blog

As I have posted already, April has been a trying month for me. A really trying month, but for every rain cloud there is a silver lining, right? That lining was how many miles I actually get to tell you about.

I am going to log this one kind of the same way I did the last one. There aren’t any treadmill or bike miles, and I never stopped to count the difference in my stair climbing, so they are all “Life” miles.

Here goes:

Sat 4/1 – 3.49 TOTAL: 3.49

4/2 1.78, 4/3 2.01, 4/4 2.13, 4/5 3.12, 4/6 1.92 4/7 2.77 Sat 4/8 1.38 TOTAL 15.11

4/9 1.93, 4/10 2.34, 4/11 2.27, 4/12 2.53, 4/13 1.49, 4/14 2.78, Sat 4/15 1.09 TOTAL 14.43

4/16 1.63, 4/17 3.03, 4/18 3.17, 4/19 3.14, 4/20 3.29, 4/21 3.68, Sat 4/22 2.71 TOTAL 20.66

4/23 .95, 4/24 3.82, 4/25 3.84, 4/26 3.07, 4/27 3.41, 4/28 3.17, Sat 4/29 2.19 TOTAL 20.45

4/30 2.34 TOTAL 2.34

And the drum roll please ….  *insert drum roll sound* … a grand total of 76.48 miles for the month of April!! HOLY COW!!!! I knew I had put in the steps and saw the numbers getting bigger, but it was not until I really started doing the math that I started to become more wide eyed about it!

Thinking that once I get this schedule figured out, and am working in Indy again, that I should up my planned miles from 50 to like 65! Even if I don’t, I will still be able to say that I have walked over 500 miles in 2017… I got this!

When Life Gives You Lemons… or However That Goes

I do not know exactly how this is going to turn out because honestly, I have so many things swimming in my head that I do not know where to begin.

After stepping off of the boat from the cruise I found out that everything at work had gone HAYWIRE. I am not going to go into any details, but trust me, it was not good.

When you are the Director of Property Operations, and a property isn’t operating, its up to you to deal with it… whether I liked it or not, it was the only option, I was going to be going to Kokomo (an hour and a half away from my house) to handle the problem.

I wont bore you with compliance details or info on what Low Income Housing Tax Credit is, but since that is the core of my job, I had to take care of it because losing money at a nonprofit is not an option.

Going into the property knowing I had less than 20 days to get an specific number of residents was a heavy load to carry. I knew that I would be able to get the applications –  it was just the processing and the moving in that I was concerned about. Sure 20 days seems like a long time, but when you only have nine days to sign the leases, the 20 is cut down rather quickly. Truly, sincerely, legitimately scared I was not going to be able to make it happen. I do not think I have ever been so stressed in my life and being away from home, in a strange town just added to it.

Since my blog always has something about gym therapy or working out the stress with exercise, I feel like I should add that in as well. Working from 8am until 10pm some days left little time to sweat out my emotions, until I realized how many stairs there were in the building. At the end of a rough day (again sometimes at 10pm) I would put on my tennies and just walk the stairs. Over the course of 13 business days I was at the property I would get in over 3 miles a day. I wish my Garmin counted the actual flights of stairs, rather than just plan steps taken, because I know I went up and down those things at least 50 times! It was not enough to work out the stress, but it did take the edge off.

Going back to the problem I was facing: how was I going to accomplish this goal???? What the EPH was I going to do?!?!

The answer turned out to be – JUST DO IT! More than that, do IT – and then some.

Now, instead of being behind and worrying about whether we could make it all happen, I am ahead of the game. Still have a long way to go, still have to be away from my family, but trying to do right by the people we serve, make a difference in the community, and support my organization.

Is it hard, hell yes its hard! Have I cried, hell yes I have! Will I break down again? I am sure of it… but I am not a quitter and failure is not an option.

Hello March – Making the Miles Count

Had a conversation with a friend today (you know who you are… and thank you for the kick in the butt) and I was reminded that my HELLO MARCH was a little behind. Even if I hadn’t had a chance to type it all out, I did keep track of my miles! I will be posted a vacation post, but let me say, that out of my 50 miles, 26 of those were from being on the cruise ship. YES! I said on a cruise I racked up over half of my miles… I wont go into detail as I will be doing another blog, but as for March – here goes!

3/1 1.34,  3/2 2.17,  3/3 2.23,  3/4 1.78,  3/5 2.13,  3/6 2.34,  3/7 1.06,  3/8 1.62,  3/9 1.79,  3/10 1.88,  3/11 2.14,  3/12  1.11, 3/13 1.43,  3/14  2.24,  3/15 1.67,  3/16 2.03,  3/17 2.37,  3/18 1.42,  3/19 2.35,  3/19 2.35,  3/20 2.79,  3/21 1.84,  3/22 1.84,  3/23 1.31,  3/24 1.43,  3/25 1.92,

3/26 3.07, 3/27 4.09, 3/28 4.63, 3/29 3.87, 3/30 5.17, 3/31 5.81

Monthly Total of: 73.03

Holy cow!! For all the hours that I am putting in at the office and the few I am getting into the gym, this has been a huge month for me!

Things are all kinds of crazy right now, but I am still planning to get my way back!

Fingers crossed for me, all!!