do you have a red cape? If not, can you get one??

Okay so here's the marathon winning plan:
There is this amazing man named Hal Higdon. He is quite old, but when he turned 60 he ran 6 marathons that year to celebrate. Impressed? Well when he turned 70, he ran 7 marathons. This man is an animal! He has great training programs on his website for all levels. I love his plans because they start out light and gradually build so anyone who follows them will have success. I am going to use his advanced marathon training program next year to prepare for the big win:) Before I start that, I am going to do the spring training program.

Other parts of the winning plan include:
-Eating amazingly (so tricky!!!) There are some foods that really trigger overeating for me and whenever I overeat, I feel bad about it and end up eating even more, such a vicious cycle!
-Visualizing there was a study done that showed amazing effects of visualizing. The researchers used three groups. One group spent an hour every day shooting free throws. One group spent an hour visualizing shooting free throws but not actually doing it. The third group spent half that time visualizing and the other time actually shooting. The researchers then tested all the people and recorded how they did at actually shooting. Suprisingly, the group that practiced actually shooting did the worst while the group that visualized and practiced did the best. Coming in a close second was the group that visualized making free throws.

The past few days, weeks, months have felt like a roller coaster for me. Sometimes I am extremely excited about life. Other times I am in the depths of despair, noticing only failure after failure and focusing on all the bad rather than focusing on how lucky I am. I want to be positive but sometimes it is difficult! A few years ago I bought a wonder woman costume. So my plan for this week is to wear the shiny red cape everyday. Can you have a bad day whilst wearing a cape???? I don't think you can. I will let you know!

Last random thought. Does anyone remember the inventor show that was on ABC a few years ago? There was a middle aged man who had this blue doll that hugged you and said everything is going to be alright. The judges lampooned the inventor, but I loved that doll. Sometimes there is someone there to hug you and tell you everything is going to be alright but sometimes there isn't and I think everyone needs to hear that occasionly. It is so easy to put so much stress on yourself that you forget that everything works out eventually, maybe not the way you thought but it does. So hugs out to everyone and remember everything is going to be alright:)

One step at a time:)

When you procrastinate enough, the pain of actually doing what you have been procrastinating about is so much less than the angst and weight of not doing it!!

What's the deal with being afraid of driving?
I'm very curious if there is anyone else out there with this condition. If there is a named phobia for being afraid of ducks then there has to be a phobia for being afraid of driving. For me it all started at a young age after a bad go-karting experience and falling out of a car onto a busy street. Once my mom took me to a cemetary to practice driving. The sign said it was closed at 4pm. It was after 4 when we went but the gates were still open so we went in. After driving to the opposite end of the cemetary, my mom and I started thinking more and more about the closing time and began talking about getting stuck in the cemetary. I asked my mom how fast I could drive and she said "as fast as you can." We did make it out, the gates were still open, in a cloud of dust and another scary driving experience under my belt.

I never took a drivers training because it cost too much and then suddenly my not being able to drive became bigger and bigger and suddenly anytime I thought of driving I started sweating. I have always been a perfectionist and afraid of failure and being bad at anything. Being afraid of failure is the worst! Anyone afraid of failure like me has to stop. We can learn from failure. Thomas Edison learned failed to make the light bulb over and over. But, he didn't look at it like that. He looked at it like he learned several ways not to make the lightbulb.

Sometimes I wonder if I was just born in the wrong time. I did read that Google is coming out with self driving cars woohoo!!!! Unfortunately not for a few years, blast! I really don't think I would be afraid of driving if my car could go 10 mph or if a car drove itself.

But since I do not live in that time and it has gotten more and more handicapping to be afraid of driving I am driving a little each day, I have been taking it one step at a time and it's funny that a thing feared so much can bring so much joy. Now anytime I go driving I feel so good because I am doing something that for me I wanted to do but feared so much. Highways are still ridiculous, but each day I am going to try and do a little bit more.

Is there anything in your life you've been putting off? Has it become such a stress that doing it would make you feel better. Think of the pleasure it might bring you if you just do it. Think of ways you can do it one step at a time. Maybe you don't need to go on the highway yet, such a leisurely drive on small side streets. Do it c'mon!!!!


On a side note: Yay for smile therapy!!
Tony Robbins and others have suggested you change your body you can change your mood. So stand up straight, shoulders back, chin up. One day I was listening while walking and he said to smile for one minute. I was outside walking down the street looking like a total goof/crazy person, but I didn't just smile I ended up laughing becuase of how silly I knew I looked. Try it, you can't smile for one minute and be unhappy.

Do I have what it takes?

Okay do I have what it takes to win a marathon?? I am 5'4 and a former cross country runner. In high school, I was the fastest girl on our team (no matter that our team had 2 girls on it). I keep in good shape, P90X hey:) and workout daily, I've been running again but my preferred activity is walking with a book on tape. Been feeling very old lately because numerous people have laughed at my cd player, but I like it, it's sturdy and reliable and I would hate for all those books on the cd at the library to not get a chance.

You may be thinking this girl is crazy, how can she an average individual win a marathon. Well, let me just say I have had shining moments in the past and am ready to feel that glow of success again. I was part of a record holding group for how many people could fit in a VW bug. Just this year my brother and I were the
cornhole champion 10th week Camp Michigania (we were mostly playing against parent/child teams, but we did have a hell of a game)
Kickball ( yes there are adult kickball leagues out there, sign up!!!!)

Realistically do I have a chance? Fooled you strike the realistically out of that sentence, reality is what you make it. 4 minute mile couldn't be done, after it happened than everyone started breaking the record. I did look up ages and weights of female marathon winners and the average age is 28 and weight is below average so for my height 110lbs. I'm above that so I may have to cut back on the Taco Bell, ugh:(


Now the other part of the title
Do I have what it takes to be a contestant on the Amazing Race? The answer is yes, yes and yes. Unfortunately the producers do not realize this yet, despite numerous videos sent in. I can understand why I wasn't chosen for Survivor (dance dance revolution skills might not be something to highlight in a two minute video, but I was getting so good I wanted to show it off) and why a live audition for the Amazing Race didn't go well (I happened to forget the city I was from and danced a horrible jig). But I have noticed many recent contestants are not just average people but are doing or have done something pretty amazing, pagent winners, tv hosts, father and sons. So being a marathon winner might give me a step up. In future blogs I will need your help giving you descriptions of possible running mates and asking you to vote on who would give us the best chance.

How I won a marathon and became a contestant on the Amazing Race

I am a 27 year old living in my parents tiny house that I grew up in, no car (I do have my liscense though, so woohoo for that, at the green age of 25 I parallel parked, did some other crazy maneuvers and only knocked down 2 orange cones! on a side note are there others out there who think driving is scary? Snakes, cockroaches, traveling to distant countries no problem but getting behind the wheel of a very heavy machine ). Where was I? no car, no money, in a complete rut with my biggest excitement being what tv series are going to be added to netflix (Imagine my excitement when Monk, Psych and Thirty Rock were added in one week! One week!). I have my Masters and am a certified elementary teacher but terrified of teaching (it's a toss-up between driving and teaching), interviewing and having a real job. I always thought I could do great things and be super successful (I was even most likely to succeed in high school, ha) but lately I have been paralyzed into inaction. I work for my dad selling collectibles on ebay and we do not seem to be very good at it, eeking out very low salaries (think I would have more money on welfare, don't worry NOT going on welfare!!) and subbing for my mom's kindergarten class when she goes with my dad to the doctors (another side note if anyone knows about brachial plexitus and has healing ideas, let me know!) She only has 10 kids and they are half the size of me but what a job! I am not very good at it, but they are funny (my favorite thing that happened the other day was after making towers out of marshmallows and spagetti, we had quite a mess. Two kindergartners willing to help, started cleaning up leftover spagetti pieces. While tending to another fire somewhere else in the room, I heard an outcry. One little boy was very upset with the cleaner who had taken apart his structure by eating the marshmallows, The cleaner, mouth full of sticky treats, was apologizing by saying "sorry" and shrugging his shoulders "but we had to clean up the table"). I check Craigslist often looking for a high paid tutoring job (which I really would be very good at) or short term stints (I did apply to be a blogger educator on a core drilling ship but have yet to be called back, blast! perhaps my previous blog attempts did not have the stuff they were looking for, but when I reread it, I thought it was hilarious. But other than that I have been living a life of mediocrity.

One day in the attic when I was in the attic of my parents house searching through boxes tryng to find items worth $9.99 to put on ebay, I decided I was so frusterated and sick of where I am at in life. I began listening to and reading all sorts of self help books and many have a common theme:

Positive thinking
Do what you love and know what areas you have strength in
Nothing is impossible, think about it, visualize it and you can be great

So...
here starts the story of how I won the Chicago Marathon and became a contestant on the Amazing Race and became an awesome driver and...
either a humorous story of a delusional women or an inspirational tale of an average girl overcoming all obstacles and a huge endorsement for Tony Robbins and The Secret. I hope I can say go out and buy the books and start dreaming and visualizing! oh boy do I hope!! Right now I think the blog is going to tell of my successes and failures in training as well as my quest to happiness in life, job, relationships... There will be humorous anecdotes (at least to me and know what ?even if I am the only one laughing at them, that is still something isn't it?), Seinfeld quotes galore, pictures, lots of mispellings and paragraphs that are way too long...

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles," 1992 (commonly misattributed to Nelson Mandela, 1994 inauguration speech)

Are there others out there living a life of mediocrity, unhappy with how their life turned out? C'mon and do this with me! C'mon!!!!