My First Night As A Bachelorette And a Silent Sunday

You guys — you seriously never cease to amaze me with the amount of love and support you have to give.

You.Make.Me.SMILE.  And hey, that’s a goal of mine right, to SMILE — so way to go team :).

My first bachelorette night

Tonight is the first night of my bachelorettehood. . . well 3 weeks of bachelorrettehood while Zach travels the country, and world, over the next three weeks. (Yes he will be home for a few days in between, but doesn’t it sound much more dramatic the way I originally put it?! 😉

The evening started the best way possible

Workout of the Afternoon:  10 miles stationary bike, weights, and yoga baby!

A quick sweat on the bike — and I even upped the RPMs.  Nothing crazy — but a quick sweat session (that had zero ankle impact) made this girl a happy lady.

excuse the blur — my gym is small and there were definitely other people in there. Coulda gotten awkward . . .

I finished up with a few minutes of upper body weights, then headed upstairs to love on the furballs. . .  and to do more YO –GA, and spend some time with my friend foam roller.  ‘Cause I’m all about following through on my goals baby 🙂

For dinner —  I reheated a left over tortilla from yesterday, topped with greens, chicken salad from Whole Foods, and some chex mix.

If that doesn’t scream random — I don’t know what does.  Whatever, it hit the spot and it was tasty.

And now — it’s time to spend the evening with another one of my favorite men.

Yup — a little David Tuterra, sparkling water and cookies for the rest of the night.

Zach, don’t you wish you were here?

Silent Sunday

And of course, since I missed out on Silent Sunday last night, I thought I’d still share some photos from yesterday with you today.  Better late, than never, right?

Have a great night all!

Question of the Day:  What’s the one thing you do when you’re home alone for a night?

Normally make a really random, totally Ashley dinner.  Hence chicken salad and chex mix.

ME goals

Alright guys:  I’m shifting my mind frame. Here and now.  I’m going to pop OUT of my funk of sickness, injury, husband traveling gunk and CHOOSE to be positive.

I told you in my morning post that I am consciously skipping my workout “plan” for the week this week.  Part of shifting my mind frame is taking the pressure OFF myself and my (not 100%) body.  In stead, focusing on things I can do — and appreciating those victories.  Large or small.

So instead of a work out plan, I’m going to have goals for the week.

“Me” goals for the week

• Foam roll everyday
• Eat and enjoy a piece of fresh fruit everyday
• Intentionally drink more water
• Smile!
• YOGA
• If I get to run this week: Do it slow, and enjoy.

Foam roll Everyday

• My body, for better or worse, has been overworked and over-strained in the past few weeks.  Not only does that make me more sore than normal, it makes me prone to injury and that is just-no-good.  While I may not be getting in the miles right now, I want to still give my body the stretching and rolling that it needs to repair and rebuild muscles that have pushed me through a lot the past few months.

Eat and Enjoy a piece of fresh fruit everyday.

• I try to eat healthy and give my body what it needs.  But just like many others, I can use to improve.  When I’m at work, I am constantly going — which makes me a huge snacker.  What I really want to do this week is to make an effort to make sure that at least one of those snacks includes a piece of fresh fruit.  I have found that when I start my day with fresh fruit, my body gets the natural sugar it needs to start up, while also taming the natural sweet tooth that we all know I proudly claim :).  Taking this approach serves me much better than any processed snack that I could choose to start my work day with . . . and while I know that sometimes it’s hard to make the right choice 😉

Intentionally Drink More Water

• This is something I constantly need to work on — but especially coming off being sick, and coming into a race weekend.  I don’t want to put a numerical goal on HOW much water I am drinking, instead just make a concious effort to always have water around me…and just sip away!

Smile

• I’m going to give it to you all straight:  the past few weeks have been TOUGH on me.  Between being sick, Zach traveling, the stress of the race, and now dealing with my ankle — I’ve been in kind of a funk.  I’ve been allowing what’s been going on externally to effect me internally as well, and I REALLY want to make a shift here.  Mind over matter.  I recognize where my body’s limitations are right now, but I want to work on turning my frown upside down.  Smile when I see people, smile when I notice myself thinking about something — just SMILE.  Make an effort to FEEL happy, and hope that it works to focus my mind on the positive, and push out some of the negative.

YOGA

• In my previous training cycles I have really amped up my yoga in the last few weeks as the miles lesson and muscles tighten.  I want to focus on this EVEN MORE now that I may be off my feet for a little while.  I started this morning with a brief yoga session, and let me tell you it made a difference in my mind set right away.  I’ve also made another goal for my work day of busting out a 60 second plank and 10 hip dips each hour between clients — since it’s something active I can do and helps to stretch out and strengthen my body.  It’s small — but right now I’m all about the small things 🙂

If I do run this week:  do it slow, and enjoy.

• I am trying to stay optimistic here and hope that within the next few days, I’ll be back on my feet and slowly returning to my running shoes.  Cautiously optimistic.  And of course, I hope I do. . . but when and if I do, I am making a promise to myself to take it slow, and ENJOY THE RIDE.  Running is something that I need to never take for granted — it brings me SO much joy (and torture….but still ;), but it is hard on my body. And I need to respect both.

So folks — that’s it.  That’s my schedule goals for the week.  Since it won’t quite be a normal workout week for me — I’ll keep you up to date on what the “work outs” or activities look like.  So far today:

• Yoga
• 60 second planks every hour-on-the-hour with 10 hip dips during the work day

And the rest is up in the air 🙂

I can’t post this with out saying THANK YOU to everyone of you out there who read, comment, laugh, chat, or even LOOK at my blog.  Honestly — this blog has been such a source of happiness in my life the past few months. It’s an outlet for my thoughts, it’s a network to so many amazing, like minded people, and it’s a space where I can just be ME.  Even when I am in a funk.  So THANK you.  THANK YOU for reading, and just being such an amazing support system every day 🙂

Question of the Day:  Give me one of your “me” goals

We Are A Mess

Good Morning and Happy Rainy and yucky Monday everyone 🙂

 

Zach and I spent yesterday watching sports, reading, and relaxing.  The way a Sunday should be 🙂

 

 

We.Are.A.Mess

Listen to this past week of events in the Jara Household

• Tuesday night: Ashley gets violently ill — Zach takes care of me
• Wednesday all day — Ashley very will — Zach takes care of me
• Thursday all day — Ashley still ill, Zach starting to not feel well — tag team taking care of each other
• Friday — Zach SICK — Ashley take care of Zach
• Saturday — Zach sick, Ashley still taking care of Zach
• Sunday – Ashley sprains ankle.  Doesn’t hardly move from the couch ALL day once pain sets in.

And of course, today, Zach begins his 3 weeks of travel.

I better wrap myself in bubble wrap while he’s gone!

This Morning

The first thing on my mind this morning was my ankle.  I slept in my compression socks last night, in hopes that it would give some kind of support and prevent swelling over night.

I can’t really say much one way or the other if it helped — I just know that I want to baby the heck out of it.  I’m now 13 days out from Saint Louis RnR — so it’s all about RnR for this girl ;).  For now, it’s brace all day long, and ice and heat when I get home from work.

I’m trying to stay optimistic on this one — so one day at a time.  I’m going to bubble wrap myself and my house and hope for the best.

No serious exercise for this lady — but I did enjoy some light Yoga to start the week.

Work out Plan for the Week

Ok — I’m just going to give it to you all straight.

I am NOT doing a work out plan for the week.

I hope you all are’t too dissapointed in me, but I NEED to chill out, give myself a break, and not put any undue pressure on myself this week.

Whether it’s luck, my body giving me messages, or my brain giving me a message, I have been TOUGH on my body and on myself the past few weeks — and I need to change that.  So for this moment, I am NOT doing a work out plan for the week.  I do want to mock up something, but for now, my mindset is priority at this point.

Check back with me later or an update 😉