The Big 2.0

Today's blog post is dedicated to my first ever, without stopping, red faced, huffing and puffing, two mile run! That's right y'all--after two months of jogging twice a week I finally made it two miles. Prior to this run the longest I had made it was 1.8 with one break. (Helen says that stopping for 40 seconds doesn't even count as a stop and that I didn't need to tell people about that, but it was still failure in my eyes. #superselfcriticalprobs) Of course I have been content doing any exercise because hey--it's more than I would be doing sitting on the couch, right?! But I REALLY I wanted to get to two miles because I REALLY want to run a 5K. When we started this I could barely make it one mile, and it took me 12 and a half minutes.

But after several weeks I got to where I could make it to about 1.5 miles until I was convinced my lungs were no longer functioning and I would pass out at any moment. Helen was getting ready for a 5K mud run right before Easter so she got all bad ass on me and texted me one day declaring she had made it past 2 miles at some ridiculously fast pace like 10:20. So now crazy competitive Lizzie took over. I momentarily had a split personality where I was super proud of her and excited for her, but also angry because I hadn't done that. Yet.

Flash forward to Easter break (the biggest summer tease ever). I was home alone and rolled out of bed at the crack of 11AM (for some reason when I go home I have no internal alarm) and decided, "You know what? Today I'm going to exercise!" This was a big step considering I was about to workout on a holiday break. So I started thinking about my options and considered bike riding to Jamba Juice--my former place of employment and creator of delicious smoothies, but then I decided I really wanted a passion tea from Starbucks. So I looked up the distance from my house to a nearby Starbucks and saw that it was 2.1 miles. Challenge Accepted.

I suited up and stole my mom's super cute Nikes for the venture because I needed all the motivation I could get. Then I downloaded this app called Run Keeper. If you run you need to get this! It is really easy to use and uses GPS to track your run, keeps time and pace, and even tells you how many calories you burned. It's great and you could even use it for walks if you don't like to run. It also links up to your playlists on your phone so you can listen to music through the app! Super cool! So I grabbed my headphones and headed out. I will now take you through the mental process that was my 2.1 mile run.

Mile 0- Begin jogging back behind my neighborhood by the creek. Listening to top 25 most played on my Iphone...this should be interesting...oh Shakira! I love Shakira. This is a good start. Oh man...I hope the creek hasn't changed since I was last back here. I wonder if anyone has ever really seen an alligator back here or if they just made that up. Okay Lizzie, this is good--TODAY IS THE DAY. You will make it 2 miles. Or live in shame forever. Ugh no, stop doing that. You can do this. "Red" by T-Swift? Ehhhhh I'm not sure how jogging to this will go. I'll try it out. You know for as much hate as she gets, Taylor sure knows how to write some lyrics that hit teenage girls. I mean they might not be philosophical.....but losing him WAS blue liked I'd never known, missing him WAS dark grey all alone, and forgetting him WAS like trying to know somebody you'd never met...and loving him WAS red!!! *insert guitar/drum solo here* Preach it Taylor.

Mile .5- Oh look this app has a nice lady voice that tells me I've made it .5 miles and how long it took me! 12 minutes pace? Maybe I should speed up a little. I bet it's the music I'm listening to--the beat isn't fast enough. Curse you Christina Perri. That was actually farther than I thought. I only have to do that 3 more times. There's that super cute house with the adorable back yard landscaping. I bet they have cute kids. I want cute kids. And good landscaping. Good thing Blanca* is going to be a landscape designer. Yes!!! T-swift is on again. "I knew you were trouble when you walked innnnnnn, so shame on me no-owwwwww" Interesting. I never thought Taylor Swift would be good jogging music. This is nice. Haha...that goat video is too great. Only 3 more half miles to go. I can totally do that.

Mile 1- God that second half mile seemed a lot longer than the first....I'm only half way done!!! Nooo! Positive thoughts Lizzie. You know that this is mostly a mental game. You can breathe just fine. Oh look I made it to Mason road! And now that new Paramore song is on! I'm so glad they are coming back. I loved her old music. "Don't go cryin, to your mama, cuz you're on your own in the real world!" Oh I'm definitely singing out loud. I hope none of these cars driving by saw that. Hey look Lizzie--you're conquering a fear of running where people can see you! I hope my boobs aren't too bouncy. That would be weird. Ugh I bet I look fat right now...Stop that! Focus on the music. You know I can think of several people who need to hear that song. Man now it's over! What's next? Yessssssss, triple threat Justin Timberlake. "I can't driiiiiink youuuuu awayyyyy." I heard there was a country version of this song. I can't imagine it would be better than JT.

Mile 1.5- Woooohooooo! I'm so close. Ocean's Rise by Hillsong United? Next. I love you Jesus, but your jams don't make good running music. I'll listen to it on the cool down. Man I love that song. Uh oh, there's a stop light. Do I stop? No that would be quitting. But then I might get hit by a car!!! Aha! Solution: run in place. This probably looks dumb. Oh well, I'm running across. Pedestrians always have the right-of-way, right? Oh the nice lady tells me I've made it 1.7 miles. I'm starting to struggle. Oh lord. Don't panic Lizzie. Crap. I can't breathe. I'm dying. This is it. They will find my body on Mason road. I didn't tell anyone I was going jogging! Oh God. At least I have on cute workout clothes. Do my bra and underwear match? I have to stop. No! I can't stop! (notice that We Can't Stop by Miley Cyrus is playing. Laugh and the irony) Opt to slow down to approximately the speed of a turtle galloping through peanut butter instead. Yeah okay...I can do this. I'm so close! Keep the slow pace for a couple minutes and then resume normal speed.

Mile 2- OMG! I did it! I made it to two miles!!! I didn't die!!! I can see Starbucks on the horizon! Forget this sidewalk, I'm running through the grass to get there more quickly. Ain't nobody got time for winding sidewalks. I wanted to make it 2 miles....no point in going farther than that! Haha. Venti unsweet passion tea with apple juice here I come! You know I'm kind of hungry. I think I'll grab some sushi from Kroger too. BOOM. #callmehealthy

Of course I proceeded to commemorate the moment and post it to my favorite form of social media, Facebook. Red face and all-- I didn't care. #nofilter because I, Lizzie Lewis, the non runner had made it 2.15 miles at a pace of 11:28 per mile. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Hopefully this is the beginning  of my 5K prep. Now I just have to pick one and work my way up to three miles. I wanted to share this with y'all because I have gone from not being able to run a mile to making it 2.1 miles in about 2 months. That's not super fast progress and I have only been jogging twice a week. I am a normal, average girl who is trying to get more fit and if I can have this small victory so can you! So go get you a walking/jogging/running buddy and some cute tennis shoes--Starbucks is waiting ;)

Until next time,

-L

So I Fail At Oil Pulling...

...but I have learned a lot about coconut oil!

If y'all have been reading from the beginning of my blog, you will remember that I said I was going to try oil pulling because I read about it on some other blog somewhere and it supposedly has all of these great health benefits. I have no doubt that this is true, however I am apparently not hipster enough to stick to it! I literally tried it like 3 times and then decided I was over it. As a result of my lack of dedication I was left with an almost full jar of organic unrefined coconut oil that looks like this:

I got my mother to buy this for me at Sprouts because as a college student I am too poor to buy it, but since I have started using it I would definitely say I will buy some when this jar runs out!

So apparently coconut oil is a very handy thing. First off--yes you can start oil pulling. You take a couple tablespoons of this stuff and swish it in your mouth for like 20 minutes (WARNING: The first time you try this you might gag. Let's pretend I don't know that from personal experience. Coconut oil is not a liquid at room temp so it takes a minute for the goop to melt on your tongue.) Benefits of this include:

-Whiter teeth

- Gets rid of bacteria 

-Helps with migraines

-Helps with psoriasis 

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Google it if you want more info :)

The next benefit is that coconut oil is great for your hair. Scoop some out while you're in the shower and coat your hair with it just like you would a conditioner and let it sit for a couple minutes while you shave or scrub or something. Then wash it out a voila! Super soft hair. You just found yourself a once a week deep conditioning treatment.

The third thing I have used coconut oil for is cooking! Yep, you read that right. Instead of canola oil which is all artificial and man made, I used coconut oil in the last chicken dish I cooked. It came out of Cooking Light magazine, and was basically pan fried coconut chicken strips. You take the chicken, and "dredge" (this is a fancy cooking term that I took to mean "cover") it in rice flour, then a mixture of buttermilk and one large egg, then unsweetened coconut flakes *side note--they do not sell these at Brookshire Brothers. So much for small town grocery shopping. How do they have rice flower, but not unsweetened coconut flakes?!*. Heat a skillet to medium heat and coat it with a couple tablespoons of coconut oil and then cook the chicken for like 7 minutes/until the coconut flakes are brown. It was delicious and only like 290 calories for three strips. I added in a little extra for mine since I had sweetened coconut flakes. I think it would be okay to use even if you weren't cooking a coconut dish, because it smells more like coconut than it actually tastes like it. You will discover this if you try oil pulling. 

The final use for coconut oil, and probably my favorite, is eye make up remover! I used to have a Mary-Kay eye make up remover that I LOVED. Then after I got this jar I saw a pin on Pinterest where the woman said she used it as eye make up remover. Genius I say! I made a couple adjustments to her instructions. She said she scooped it onto her fingers and rubbed it on her eyes until she felt the mascara come off. When I tried this I got coconut oil all up in my eyes and it was really uncomfortable. #embarrassing. 

So now what I do is take a cotton ball, swirl it around the top layer of the coconut oil in the jar until there is a decent amount on the cotton ball, and continue just like you would with normal eye make up remover.

Like this:

It works really well! As seen here:

Look at all that gross stuff I got off of my eye lids. Right eye was just wiped, and left eye still has make up. Afterwards, your eyes are kind of oily, but that is the perfect way to prevent wrinkles. You may be 21 now--but this is when you have to start fighting stuff like that (or so my mother tells me). So then you go to sleep and wake-up with moisturized eye lids. #nocrowsfeetforme

So these are the things I use coconut oil for. Hopefully this was a helpful tip! Let me know if y'all use it for anything else :)

-L

Ain't That The Truth: Procrastination Station

Since I got all sappy on y'all with the bridge post, I decided that this week's "Ain't That The Truth" Tuesday post would be a little more light hearted ;)

But seriously--Ain't that the truth!!! I am possibly the world's worst about procrastinating things that probably indicate my preparedness for adulthood. 8 page paper due? The night before sounds like a great place to start. Laundry hamper over flowing with piles of dirty laundry? Ehhh...it'll make it to Sunday. Do I REALLY need to study for this chem test? I'll just wing it, I mean I probably have like a B in the class. Do the dishes? Nope. *precariously piles on one more plate*

As long as I can remember I have been the most unconventional mash up of perfectionism, and procrastination, and I think I have finally discovered why. It's not that I don't care-- in fact I would say I care too much. If I had to choose a character flaw, caring too much would be somewhere in the top three! My wonderful mother likes to tell me a story when I start to get frustrated/overwhelmed about things. (There was *surprisingly* no sarcasm in that sentence. My mother really is wonderful and this story cracks me up because it sounds like a typical Lizzie moment. Hi mom!!!) When I learned cursive in second grade, I was struggling with some letter (probably a capital "S"...I still can't write that damn letter) and just could not get it right. I was apparently not meeting some standard I had set for myself to be the best cursive writer in the second grade. So, I proceeded to scribble all over my paper, jabbing my pencil into it, until my practice paper was torn and covered in scribbles. Why my mother didn't have me medicated that very moment I will never know. 

The point is that I didn't fail out of the second grade. I composed myself and tried again until I could write that letter like the best of them! My mother has told me repeatedly that as long as she can remember I have been the type of person who puts her mind to something and achieves it. So why then, can someone who can be so driven and competitive put things off until the last minute? I honestly think it's all about priorities. 

My current priorities:

1. Forgiving myself for being heartbroken & letting go

2. Making it to the end of this semester so I can go to Slovakia for my study abroad

3. Growing in my faith

4. Living it up on the weekends

5. Getting healthy/fit

Not my current priorities:

1. Making good stellar grades

2. Making sound financial decisions *See the "alcohol vs. groceries" argument*

3. Having wrinkle free clothes

4. Keeping my room clean

5. Recognizing, accepting, and embracing the fact that I am soon entering adulthood

Now, some of my current priorities are great. And necessary. But some of the things that I should probably be more concerned about fall under the "things I don't care about" category. And my mind knows this. It's trying to give me multiple real-talk sessions on the daily. Like "Real talk Lizzie--You need to hang up your clothes when you get them out of the drier. You look like a homeless man" or "Real talk Lizzie--How are you supposed to teach high school students in a  years time if you can't choose groceries over lime-a-ritas?" And my favorite "Real talk Lizzie--you can't dance well enough to be a stripper, and you aren't coordinated enough to be a waitress. Stop pinteresting and go do your homework!"

So, in order to help you with whatever your procrastination issues are, I would suggest writing down a priority list similar to mine! Think about the things you are realistically concerned about on a day to day basis, and then reflect on that list and come up with things that you should be concerned about on a day to day basis. You might be surprised at what you are putting the most effort into in your life.

-L

They Call Me Bridge Girl

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you have already seen this photo--my long term, finally completed shop project. At the beginning of last semester my professor needed a volunteer for what he promised was an easy project with a chance to leave behind a legacy at SFA. So *ding ding ding* guess who volunteered?! This over achiever right here. Little did I know how many problems this project would present, and what a pain in my butt it would become! By Helen's request, and with input from many other friends, I have decided to dedicate this post to the bridge which is soon to be placed on Banita Creek Trail behind "The Lofts" in Nacogdoches. Axe 'em Jacks!

Back story: The money for this bridge was donated (Another reason I volunteered. I didn't have to supply the metal for my project) by Dr. Abernathy, who actually designed all of the trail systems in Nacogdoches and is sort of a living legend around the SFA ATCOFA. It is one of his wishes to get this bridge put in, so Banita Creek Trail can be completed. So this really was a great project. Helping a well known community member, and contributing to something that will be used by hundreds and hundreds of people.  I just got a little bit ahead of myself...

So in terms of technical problems (don't worry--this bridge is structurally sound!!! And tested.) I avoided stick welding this thing at all costs because it's more difficult than MIG welding. If you aren't an ag major and have no rural background you can Google what that stands for. So I literally spent the first half of a semester cutting the metal, and trying to get out of starting to weld it. I had to weld it outside though, because it is so freaking huge...forty feet to be precise! And of course, by some twisted trick of fate nothing went right. The weather never cooperated, the welders we were using were on the fritz, etc. (Is fritz a real word? Because this isn't telling me I need to spell check it....interesting...) So eventually I was forced to drag the stick welder outside through what SFA calls "pavement". It can be seen in the above photo as a sad excuse for pavement, consisting more of tiny rocks mixed with large rocks, making it very difficult to roll welders through. Pretty sure I cursed a few times trying to haul those heavy things out there. Once I began Doc had been right, it was pretty repetitive. At this point my fellow SFASU student and ag mech sufferer Jessica had joined me on the project. Originally she was just moral support, but as the semester went on we all began to realize just how big of a project this was becoming and how I really could use another person helping me. The semester rolled around to the end and we thought we had finished welding everything. *Doc went back later and found spots we had apparently deemed too difficult to get to and had one of his student workers who is a much better welder than us finish those up* Then Dr. Morton drops a bomb on me, that this thing still needs to be primed and painted. WHAT?! Just when I thought I was done, you're telling me I have to work on this next semester too? Because I'm definitely not working on it over Christmas break! Well y'all can imagine just how motivated I was to finish a project for a class I was no longer enrolled in. 

Which brings me to the *dun dun dun dunnnnn* moral lesson in bridge building. Maybe it's because I'm listening to the Les Mis soundtrack, but I'm feeling sappy tonight. And as Helen pointed out to me, I could come up with SOOOO many metaphors to compare this bridge to. In fact, my friends all started joking that it was starting to represent my life! This unfinished, burden of a project that just would not go away, no matter how hard I tried to shove it to the back of my mind. *cough cough relationship cough cough.* I knew if I would just buckle down and get it done I could lift that pressure off of myself and not have to worry about it! But I kept putting it off, hoping that someone would finish it for me. 

Pause- If you know me, that last sentence is so out of character. Since when do I, Lizzie Lewis, ultimate go-getter, over-committer, teacher's pet, whatever you want to call it, lose all motivation? This semester. That's when. 

I have been having such a hard time finding my motivation this semester. Ask my sorority sisters! I have been slacking as President, and have developed such an "IDGAF" attitude that it literally makes my stomach hurt sometimes. So when my friends made the comment about that bridge being a metaphor for my life, even though they were kind of joking, it really struck me.

Because they were totally right.

That bridge represents all of the things I thought I had no control over. I had no control over the weather not cooperating on some days, or welders not working. I had no control over being dumped. And that is pretty much where the list ends. I have control over my attitude every day. I have control of my schedule. I had the choice to put off painting another day. I have control of the way I treat others. I have control of how I treat my body. I have control of my life. I kept making excuses as to why I couldn't go paint today, or tomorrow, or this week. I could hear myself sounding like such a slacker!!! It took me almost an entire semester to prime and paint that thing--the same amount of time it took me to build it! 

So now that it's finally done and I've had a chance to look back at this project I cant honestly say that I have gotten much more out of it than a legacy. Don't think I still won't force my future students to go visit this bridge so I can tell them the story--because I will. Every year. And maybe I'm making connections (or building bridges..heheh...) where they don't exist. But I feel like the timing of this bridge was very interesting. One of those God things, you know? I'm not saying that the completion of this bridge has lifted all of my emotional burdens. It's not magical. I am sure I will still wake up some days where it's all I can do to get up and function. It didn't mend a broken heart. *Side-note...remember the show "My Life as a Teenage Robot? If her heart broke could you weld it back together and fix it? These are the questions that haunt me.* But it did take a big weight off of my shoulders. And I do think it's interesting that I finished it around the same time I am beginning to forgive myself for being so unmotivated this semester. So--moral of the story is don't be so hard on yourself, and remember that everyday you make choices that affect you in more ways than you think. Don't put off until tomorrow what can be done today. That, and if you ever need a bridge built, DO NOT ask me.

-L