Monday Motivation!

Welcome to our very first MONDAY MOTIVATION post!  My friends Myranda from Keep Calm and Teach 5th Grade and Kristen from Eat. Pray. Travel. Teach are teaming up to bring our readers some much needed Monday Motivation.  You can look forward to a new one each Monday!

This week, I want to talk about long term vision.  One thing that keeps me motivated (especially in the nasty winters in Chicagoland!) is keeping in mind the big picture - why am I on this journey in the first place?  Why am I working so hard to log meals in MFP and get to the gym six days a week?  Why am I saying no to massive, beautiful cupcakes at Mariano's?

MY FUTURE FAMILY

For me, that's my future family and future travel.  These are two things I want more than anything.  I want to be, first of all, healthy enough to have kiddos.  And if, God willing, that all works out, I want to be an active mom that sets a great example for her kiddos.  At my current weight, I'm not there yet, but each day that I put in an extra step at school and an extra half mile at the gym, I'm just that much closer to that goal - something that will make life better for the people I love!

TRAVEL

And then there's travel.  If you know me or have read some of my Facebook posts, my husband and I have a ten year goal to leave our jobs and take our family on a year long road trip from Alaska to Argentina.  We want to do a lot more traveling besides that, but so much of what we want to do I am uncomfortable doing or flat out can't do because I'm too heavy.  I want to be comfortable on an airplane.  I want to go ziplining.  All of these things ARE POSSIBILITIES FOR ME when I reach my goals.  

So if you're struggling today, zoom out.  Remind yourself about the big picture.  What do you want in the end?  How will today's good choices get you just a bit closer to realizing your dreams?

Be sure to check out my Monday Meal Plan if you need help getting back on track :-)

xoxo,

Amanda

P.S.  Don't forget to check out Monday Motivation from my buddies below!

                        

A Stormy Summer Monday

Sitting in the Geneva Starbucks on a stormy Monday night, I'm feeling the need to focus my energy on goal-setting for the upcoming school year.  After five years of doin' this dance, I'm really starting to know myself, my habits (good and bad) and what needs to be improved (and restored) in the classroom and in my life.  Other teachers know how this goes - we burn, burn, burn all year long taking shallow breaths along the way and finally, by the time summer rolls around, I feel like I need fourteen hours of sleep and complete zombie-like status on a regular basis.  None of these behaviors are productive or efficient, so I'd like to dedicate tonight's post to how to make summer purposeful so that I can have a more evenly paced school year.

Tonight, I'd like to focus on BEAUTY.  Here are some ways that I plan to use my summer to experiment with style and procedures to make me feel like a more beautiful me in the 2013-14 school year :-)

Beauty:

1. Find a salon and COMMIT.
• This is a huge problem for me...I find salons that I like, but it's too expensive to keep up my appointments and afford cuts!  This summer, I need to find a salon where I can get my haircuts and waxing taken care of when it needs to.  This is an absolutle necessity!    
2. Take the 30 Day Hair Challenge
• After my much needed haircut, I plan to take a 30 day Instagram Hair Challenge!  30 Days, 30 different hair dos!  Through this experiment, I hope to land a few new go-to hair styles for the school year.
• Will be using these websites to help:  http://www.hairromance.com/2012/09/30-braids-in-30-days-day-1.html
• LUXY HAIR Running Late Styles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zugLQF3uLmk
3. Revise morning & night beauty routines
• Routines are hard for me...I don't like doing the same thing every day, BUT I DO like going to school feeling put together and organized.  I need to use my morning time and my getting ready for bed time as a space to really prepare for the day and wind down and fully relax before bed.

xo, 

Amanda