When you're not feeling motivated...

The dark, cold months of winter are rough for me.

The dry skin, cold temps, shorter evenings, removal of most of my favorite outdoor activities, and Utah inversion really kill me. And among other things, one thing that leaves me during this time of year is my motivation. I just want to stay in bed and eat lots of warm carbs, which really kills the progress towards goals :)

I've found a few things that help me get through this rough time of year and help me overcome my lack of motivation:

--I get everything ready way beforehand. If I want to work out in the morning, I pack all my bags, lay out all my clothes, prep breakfast, and write it in my planner. I want to put enough effort into in that I'll feel dumb if I decide to sleep in, instead.

--I trick myself. When my alarm goes off and I want to ignore it, I tell myself that I don't have to go to the gym as long as I get up and go to the bathroom. Once I'm up and out of bed, I'm no longer tempted to skip :)

--I reward myself. I attach each goal with a reward (or punishment). If I go to that yoga class, I get to stop at the lululemon store. If I do that morning workout, I will postpone doing laundry that day (very adult of me, I know). If I don't do the workout, I make myself clean something or do extra work. It's very motivating haha.

--I try to regulate my biology. I try to get in the sun for at least a few minutes (harder than it should be, this time of year), eat fruits and veggies, go to bed early, drink lots of water, read for a few minutes, do kind things for others, and at least get up and walk or do the stairs throughout the day. By covering these bases, I feel those winter blues a little less intensely.

--I force myself to do fun things and look on the bright side. Winter may suck, but at least there is skiing! And blankets! And boots! And hot chocolate!



Do you have any tips for keeping that motivation going during winter?

Beautiful Ski Day and Mint

So I've been nervous about skiing. Will it hurt my back? If I crash, will it set me back MONTHS??? Is it even worth it?


We went skiing today (Snowbird) and took it easy. And it was WONDERFUL! Didn't hurt too bad (Except when we had to push ourselves along flat parts), it was a gorgeous day, the runs we took weren't too crowded, we had delicious hot chocolate, I had a hot date... recipe for a perfect ski day. :)





Also, I've been wanting to grow mint (and basil) FOREVERRRRR... and today I got my wish. Say hello to my new little plant! Any tips on keeping it alive haha?

Ski Progress

Something I've learned about myself - when I'm feeling motivated, I need to GO with it, because it's not always going to stick around :)

I didn't grow up skiing... in OK, it's not really an option. And even when I moved out to Utah, I only tried snowboarding (twice, to be exact, and broken bones kept me from wanting to try that again). So when I married my husband, a life-long skier, it seemed like time to get back in the saddle. Of a different horse. You know, skiing instead of snowboarding. Which, turns out, I like way better anyway.

So this season was my second. And, you know me, I love setting goals. My husband suggested that I set a goal to hit a Black Diamond run by the end of the season. To which I promptly was like, "no way, how about I set a goal to be able to do any Blue on the mountain?" So that was the goal.

On our last day of the Blues-for-days season, the snow was awful and slushy... which was one of the motivating factors in wanting to finally try my first Black. Kip suggested it, and I immediately dismissed the idea... but it didn't leave my brain... and I decided, finally, to give in.

Funny thing about that run. It wasn't even hard. Once I got over the mental hurdle of knowing how much harder it was SUPPOSED to be, I actually just enjoyed it and it really wasn't any different from lots of other runs. Except how excited I was when I met Kip at the bottom :)

I think progress is like that sometimes. Mostly it's slow and steady, baby steps up the ladder... but sometimes it's a surge of "I can do this!" that motivates us to jump :)

Not that I ever want to jump like my husband. But whatever.

Bringing in the New Year

For our New Year's Eve we kept things pretty low-key - I wanted to make a Thanksgiving Dinner-type feast, since I've never actually had the opportunity to make the whole thing myself.

It turned out pretty delicious, if I do say so myself (and my husband says so too, so that helps, although husbands eat just about anything, amiright?)

Can't wait for all those leftovers!

For New Year's Day we went up skiing and got delicious sushi afterwards! Skiing, sushi, and my sweetheart... can't beat that!



Happy New Year to All!