Mr. Scarborough: Part 2

Copied and pasted from FaceBook!  Hope you all enjoy!

First off, thanks to all of you who are interested in what's going on with Mr. Scarborough, and for all your continued support. Many of you have been SUPEREXCITED to hear how my trip to Maine went, so here's a glimpse to hopefully satisfy all of you. :)




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Ding! Ding! Round two! On Tuesday I took a nice, short, leisurely 3.5 hour drive to Scarborough, ME to see Mitchell (formerly Mr. Scarborough.)



Before the fact, I again woke up 2 hrs before I had scheduled myself to leave and commenced with my preparation for the day. 30 minutes to wake up and eat breakfast, 2 minutes deciding what to wear, 15 minutes in the shower, 10 minutes actually getting dressed and brushing hair and teeth (not with the same brush, mind you,) 5 minutes double checking the ingredient lists on my shamoo, lotions, and deoderant to make sure nothing contained anything coconut (Mitchell is allergic. [:(]), 3 minutes finding and applying mascara (which again doesn't happen often-but it adds that extra oomph,) 20 minutes running around gathering items to throw in a bag "just in case," 10 minutes assuring my grandmother I'll be fine and not to worry, 10 minutes at Cumby's to gas up and grab a lunch for when I got closer to Maine, 5 minutes in Kinney's grabbing MORE last-minute stuff (3 of which were spent talking to Dorothy about 3 kids that died in a car crash in our town the night before,) 1.5 minutes on the phone to let Mitchell know I'm FINALLY leaving, and 2 minutes to drive out of the parking lot and to leave Lyndonville. I'm off!



[Insert 3.5 hours of uneventful driving here with an awesome soundtrack including songs such as: According to You-Orianthi, Follow Me-3OH3!, OMG-Usher, Shots-Lil Jon, LoveGame-Lady Gaga, Just Dance-Lady Gaga, TiK ToK-Ke$ha, Blah Blah Blah-Ke$ha, Defying Gravity, Don't Stop Believing, Imagine, It's My Life/Confessions, Smile (Lily Allen), Taking Chances, 4 Minutes-All from Glee, Jumpin' Jumpin'-Destiny's Child, Say My Name-Destiny's Child, Affirmation-Savage Garden, No Scrubs-TLC.]



"278, 276, 274...oh, come on! It's gotta be here somewhere! 258, 256....oh...crap. FML!" This was my internal dialogue while trying to find Mitch's house after finally finding his road. (There are like 3 roads that are actually one, but the name changes the further along the road you get. Kind of like Newark Rd/St...whatever. LOL.) Of course, I missed it the first time by, but then I had to find a place to pull over (5 minutes down the road) to call my gram to let her know I got to Maine safely, as promised. I felt like if I pulled into Mitch's driveway and then proceeded to sit in the car on my cellphone that that may come across as sketchy and stalkerish. Not the best way to come across when first visiting someone's home. Haha.



Anywho, I turned around after I got off the phone, and drove by it-again. WTF?! Why am I SO good at finding people's houses? FINALLY I pulled in the driveway. Phew.



Now, here's where more confusion begins. There's a front door, and a door through the garage into the house. Way to make it easy for me, Mitchell. The walkway to the front door looked promising, so I decided to try that first. No response. Awesome. Way to make an ass out of myself before even getting inside. "Well, this is awkward," I muttered as I turned away to go try the garage door next. Too late. Just as I finished talking out loud to myself and turned around, there he was at the end of the walkway. Fabulous, now he probably thinks I am a mental case as well. Just wondeful. :)



BUT-now I'm not the one that appears sketchy and stalkerish. He just stood at the end of the walkway and stared at me until I figured out the other door would be a better way to get into the house. Hahaha. Nice.



Going into the garage was fun. I got to meet Winston (the Pug,) and Jacob (the auburn Golden Retriever) tied up just outside. SOOO CUTE! Inside the house was pretty fun too. It was designed to draw people to the living room/kitchen area which I found very clever. I met Lily (KITTYYYY!!!!) in the living room, and got to see the rest of the house. It was gorgeous, and spotless like Mitchell had told me before- despite 3 pets living there.



I got shown his bedroom and the computer room-the two most frequented-by-Mitchell rooms in the house (except the computer room is more so.) The Guest Bedroom (Mitchell's room) was really very sparce. Of course, it kind of has to be, incase everything falls apart some night and he's out a place to live. His bed was really squishy and comfy-and big! People that have bigger-than-a-twin-sized bed facinate me. I've slept in a twin my entire life-which doesn't really provide or promote cuddling opportunities. :(



Oh! Then I got to see an album full of pictures of Mitchell growing up and excelling in school. Mitch=adorable child. (And is now a perfect man <3). I may have to look at this album again later when I'm sitting down and am really able to focus in and study it. All in all though, I loved it.



After seeing this and two of his PUBLISHED POEMS (that's right, my man is totally awesome,) we were a little at a loss for what to do next. Mitchell showed me a few things online (including a game called Plants v. Zombies.) My mom would love it. Eventually we decided to drive to the beach.



For some reason, Mitch decided that he liked watching me drive, then teased me about how cautious a driver I was. Hey! I actually learned to, you know, STOP at stop signs in Driver's Ed, apparently unlike you crazy Maine people. Haha!



We got to drive through downtown Portland-except I didn't really know what I was doing because some lanes aren't really marked well. We made it unscathed, even if some drivers were probably like, "Stupid Out-of-Stater." LMFAO. Also, there was a sketchy homeless man that we had to avoid, so that was fun, too. Haha.



BEEEAAAACCCCHHH!!!!!!!!!!!



The ocean was beautiful. There wasn't spectacular visiblility, but the sun was out and the breeze was relatively warm (and so was Mitchell.) :)



We walked along the beach, and playfully shoved each other. We talked, we cuddled, we sat, we cuddled some more, we became a couple, we bonded. It was really fabulous. Oh yeah, we kissed too. [Insert pre-teen squealing here.] I missed being intimate with someone more than I realized. Apparently I have soft lips? I mean, I thought lips were supposed to be soft all on their own? Maybe not. If not, I guess I'm lucky. He is too. :) (For those of you who are like me and sometimes need extra prompting, that was me saying that Mitchell has soft lips, too.)



On the way back to his house, we took the highway which bypassed Portland's heavy traffic.



Maine is such an interesting state. The majority of it looks like VT, but on the trip down to the ocean, there was a section that reminded me of Burlington, a section that reminded me of the hills in San Francisco (although I've never actually been there,) and downtown Portland that reminded me of Montreal. WTF?! I mean, it's cool. But just not what I'm used to. =)



Getting back to the house after stopping to grab cheap gas at Sam's Club (whooo hoooo!!!) we only had a few minutes before his mom came home from work.



After a few minutes of mindless banter back and forth when she finally got home, Mitchell decided to make us scarce until she decompressed from work. So, we decided to go lay down for an hour. YAY! CUDDLE TIME! We just layed in each other's arms and chatted back and forth for a while until Mitchell fell asleep. He's so comfy! Mitchell now =s Megan's new favorite body pillow. =)



About an hour later, we were up. After more wonderful kissing, we went into the computer room so I could watch him play an expert game of League of Legends (abbreviated to LoL) so I could learn something. Well, I don't know how much I learned, but maybe with time and experience it will all come to me.



Mitchell's mom ended up getting a little testy because the one game went longer than originally intended, and supper was ready. So, begrudgingly he left the game, and we went to grab supper. Chicken Alfredo. YESSS!!! We joined his mom and stepdad on the screened-in back porch, and made more small talk. Dinner overall went very well. I had a hard time eating due to my untimely wisdom tooth trying to shoulder its way into my mouth, but I just took my time and ate until I was full. Overall, dinner=success.



Soon after this, Mitchell decided to go grab gas for his car at Sam's Club, so I went with. If you think MY driving is interesting, you should check HIS out. Psh. LMFAO! It's okay though, it makes for an interesting ride.



When we returned "home", I unfortunatley had to get going. It was about 7:30 at night, and I needed to be able to read my directions. After a few kisses, nuzzles, and hugs, I left. :'( (There really wasn't any crying, but it was very sad.)



Leaving is always the hardest part. Getting there is so easy because you have all this time ahead of you to do whatever you want. Next thing you know, it's time to go. When you leave, everything is uncertain. You don't know when you'll see each other next, you don't want to let the person go even though you HAVE to, and you don't want to put miles and miles of distance between the two of you. It's just sucky all around.



On the way home, I got lost by missing a turn somewhere, and ended up near Oxford, ME. Eventually I just decided to follow routes heading West and North which is where I needed to go to get home. I don't think I acutally lost much time by getting lost. Once I found Conway, NH again, I definitely knew where I was and then booked it home.



All in all? Not a bad day, not a bad day at all. Mitchell makes me very happy, and he's good TO me and FOR me. We're both in this relationship for the long haul, so who knows where we'll end up. For now, I'm just along for the ride. And as long as there are no other cars at an intersection, who really needs to stop? <3

Ashley

Hello, everyone!

This post is just to inform you that tomorrow I am embarking on a journey to a place I've never been before.  Cape Cod.  Whoa.

While I'm down there I'm going to visit the fabulous woman named Ashley (and her family!)  Really pumped.

It may be a few days more before I actually have a new post of any substance.  Check back in a few days!

<3 Megan <3

P.S. Wish me a safe trip!

Fleeting Motivation and More on Mr. Scarborough

Hmph.  Today I'm here to rant about fleeting motivation when I really should be doing something more important such as homework.  (Psh, who does homework?  Really?  C'mon.)  Haha!  (Those of you who know me know I'm just kidding.) 

So, in what areas of my life is motivation fleeting?

Well, for one, since the whole "exercise" thing hasn't been going that great (thanks a lot, Lyndonville,) there's one area.  Until tonight, my housecleaning skills had temporarily abandoned me.  Of course, I've had a bit more on my mind than keeping my room tidy lately (hint: Mr. Scarborough-more on him later,) but tonight I was able to whip myself into a cleaning frenzy.  *Throws a party for myself to celebrate my slight reconquest of motivation.*  Laundry done and put away, little by little things coming up off the floor, and my homework somewhat coming along, all in all I'd consider it a good night.

So, what am I trying to say?  I guess just that I can relate.  Keeping focused is hard especially when you have a lot going on.  It's not to say I've given up on everything altogether, just that everyone has a time when things aren't going exactly as he or she wishes they would.  To be completely honest, it might be a good thing if I could get back on Weight Watchers for the summer.  I feel bad though because my grandmother footed the bill last time, and by the time Velvet, Ashley and I got to Champlain Loses It, I didn't need it anymore because we could all do it on our own.  But now that I'm back by myself, it's all falling apart again.  I really want to try to peel some of this weight back off again, but my surroundings and environment make that really hard.  (Especially when I want to eat right for my body, but all's we've had in the house constantly is bread.  So, toast for breakfast, some sort of sandwich for lunch, and more toast or bread for supper.)  Not exactly a well-balanced diet.  I admit some of the shortcomings are me just failing at cooking skills because I haven't learned how certain dishes go together yet, but it's hard.  Also, there is a distinct lack of motivation to eat apples and fruit.  I love apples and peanut butter!  Why hasn't it looked appetizing to me in like, a month?!  WHY AM I NOT BEING MYSELF?!

Writing this is making me really depressed, but it's good to get this all out I suppose.  Repressing this kind of stuff is never good for anybody.  Creating a healthy lifestyle for yourself (including a well-balanced diet and exercise schedule) isn't just hard, it's nearly impossible.  And now with my work schedule down to about 10 hrs/week, I don't even have the money to do anything extra for myself (much less contribute to seeing Mr. Scarborough more often...which makes me impossibly sad.) :(  Somehow, someway, I'm going to do this.  There will be a day where things get easier all around.  There will be a day when I am free of the majority of my debt (student loans,) and there will be day when I can settle down with an amazing husband, Lara & Phoebe & co., and Ryan living in the basement working as the on-call babysitter for my yet-to-be-conceived children.  There will be a day when I reach my goals.  And world, you best be looking out when that happens.  America will never be the same.  =D

For those of you out there who are in the same rut I am, hang in there ladies and gents.  We'll get out of here sometime.  But I suppose now is one of those times that makes the whole struggle worth the while.  Now will be one of those times you can look back on and be like "Whew, I remember that.  Rough stuff, but it showed me what I was really made of."  (Leave a comment at the end of all this if you're in a rut as well.  Maybe we can pull each other out!)

Now, for more on Mr. Scarborough.  We have officially had our first date and in my mind we are now at "officially dating" status.  Those of you who have read the story on FaceBook can skip this next part, but here's my take on how the day went:

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For all of you who wanted to know how my first date with Mitchell went, here's the rundown/play-by-play. :)

My mom, gram, and I set off at 1 today (on time!) for North Conway, NH. Now, this is kind of an awesome feat considering how long it took me to get ready for this date (1.5 hrs.) Not that I was actually doing a lot for that whole span of time. I mean, I only take a half hour with taking a shower and getting dressed. But the rest of it was mostly psyching myself up in the mirror. My only makeup: eyeliner and mascara. Not a lot. And I don't usually wear make up, so that was a nice change for me. Anywho, I sort of digress. My hair didn't want to cooperate with what I wanted it to do (I was trying to make it flip out a little bit all the way around, but it came out looking bad so I just flat ironed it back out.) Note: this is one of those times I'm glad I have straight hair. It isn't hard to put it back where it belongs if you try something and it doesn't work out. That took about 20 minutes. Finally I gave up and just threw a flower in my hair. Whatever. Haha.
So, on the way to N. Conway, there was some beautiful scenery. But....you all don't really want to hear about that do you? :P Okay, skip to the first time we see each other.
We arrived first to Applebees, so I was planning to kind of mentally prepare myself for how the date was going to go. I wasn't really sure what was going to happen today, so I was just going to go with the flow basically. Well in the meantime, Mitch had pulled into the parking lot, and by the time I realized he was here he was already walking towards the car. Crap. Guess I'm not preparing anything. Haha! So I stumble out of the car and kind of wait to see what happens. We hug. Awww! We chit chat back and forth about nothing in particular until we enter the restaurant.

My mom picks up the tab for our table, so we get led off to our own table first, then my mom and gram get seated afterwards. Note: we realized it worked out perfectly after all because they could still see us and what was happening, but were out of earshot. Whew. :)
Now, my memory isn't always that great (my mother even testified for me today on her own about that,) but here's some of the cute things I remember from lunch/dinner....does that make it dinch or linner? (I think I like linner.)
1) The Straw Story: Our waiter was awesome, but realized he only had one straw in his apron when he brought our drinks out. As he goes to get another, Mitchell takes the straw, unwraps it, and sticks it in my raspberry iced tea. Awwwww!!!! Yeah, I was kind of excited about that.

2) Hand holding! At the table! WHOA! Like, did you know that can happen? Haha! This was really awesome because I apparently had poor circulation today. (Maybe it came from being nervous, in which case all the blood in your body goes to your core in attempt to keep you alive?) Gotta love biological functions.
3) Intense eye contact. I felt like my soul was being searched and it made me wiggle a little bit. That was a little outside of my comfort zone because that hasn't really happened to me before. But overall, I think I liked it. I hope Mitchell liked whatever it was he saw, even if I did squirm at being put on the spotlight. :)
4) :) <-Exactly. He made me smile and laugh, a lot. Very much a plus.
*5) Five is starred because this isn't necessarily from linner, but just in what I've noticed since talking with him. This guy is brilliant. He very much has his own opinions on just about anything and everything. Seriously, he's like a walking encyclopedia. I just want to pick his brain and learn from him ALL the time. So far I've been able to keep up on what he's asked me my opinions on (ex: Scientiology, what our country has come to, etc,) but I'm even just ok with hearing him rationalize about what his opinions are, and why they are what they are. He's so full of fun facts with just about anything you bring up with him, and I genuinely enjoy just having conversations about nothing in particular with him. Mitchell- you're still perfect. <3
Mkay, back to the date. Lunch was fabulous. Mitchell enjoyed some delicious Chicken Alfredo, and I had a blast with my Grilled Chicken with Garlic (which came with broccoli.) Note: not the best choice in terms of breath freshness and pieces of food stuck in teeth afterwards, but I didn't really want to be licking my fingers after eating Chicken Tenders and then hand holding. I like hand holding. I'm not a fan of passing germs around. :P
At some point my mom came up and shared that we'd be going to Coldstone Creamery for dessert, so after finishing our meal, we went there!
As we were leaving the restaurant, my mom (probably subconsciously, but still nontheless) demonstrated her trust by asking how we were getting to Coldstone's. "So, how are we going to do this? Do you guys want to drive together, or do you all want to come with us, or what?" Yaay! We've demonstrated that Mitchell isn't some serial-killer dude that's going to kill me! Points!

Coldstones=awesome. Everyone got fabulous icecream. This place was important because Mitchell, my mom, my gram, and I all got to talk together as one big group. This gave my mom and gram and Mitchell time to interact with one another, and to do more of the trust-building thing. I think overall it went extremely well. In here Mitchell and I got to playfully gently shouldering one another, and while I was sitting next to him we kind of rubbed our knees together. Awww! ;) Hehe. Oh! And there's a possible trip to Boston to the acquarium with Mitchell and friends (sounds like a movie. hahahaha!) in the beginning of July. This sounds so awesome. We've just got to work out the details, $$$ to go, and transportation. RAWR. I mean, how many ways can one person get to Boston? Train, plane, bus, and automobile. Hahaha. One of those has to cut it. I hope it can work out! I just hope I don't have to drag everyone down because this might have to be a day trip for me. I mean, I'd love to make it an overnight and just go home with Mitch, but I actually have to meet his mom first (which I don't mind, thats okay with me,) and make sure we can work out the details once again.
After Coldstones, my mom and gram decide they want to look at some of the shopping centers. So we go to the Christmas Tree Shop. This first of all makes me miss Ashley. I'M COMING DARLING, HOLD ON UNTIL FRIDAY!!! So after watching Mitch return a cart to it's proper designated return tent (awww!) we walk in the front door. Noodles are for sale. You know, the kind you go swimming with. My urge? Buy like 10 of them and take them with me to 308 to have a HUGE wet noodle fight on our first night there. Seriously, how awesome would that be? THREE stories of college kids running around with a noodle to fight one another. You can't pack in too much more awesome into one event as that. I later found out that Mitchell would have been toes fine with grabbing two and having a mini fight right there in the store, but at the time my grandmother probably wouldn't have approved. :)
Walking around the store was where the physical contact started. Lots more hand holding, palm on my lower back (love that move. :] ) and just general closeness. I'm a big fan. Seriously. I've missed close physical contact like that for a loooong time, and it was SO nice to get some of it back today. Does anybody else notice Mitch's perfecto-meter going up still? ;)

As if this weren't all good enough, my mom and gram started bickering as usual about which way to go and how to get from Point A to Point B. He found this halarious. Which I'm glad of. Sometimes they can get a little scary with one another, but everything today was just really light hearted. I LOVE his laugh so much. It's a really carefree, kick back and REALLY enjoy yourself kind of laugh. I'm glad my family was amusing. :)
The results? All in all today was a fabulous day. I wouldn't have had it any other way, and I hope it wasn't too nervewracking on his side. My family tries not to be intimidating, but I know it doesn't always come across that way. Bottom line: I'm happy again. I haven't been this giddy and excited about a boy in about 4 years. Ryan's even noticing the difference. Seriously, talk to him. :P I'm very happy right now, and I feel like I'm in a good place. Leave some comments about what you read that you liked!
<3 Megan <3
 
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Mmm hmmm...yeah, it really was that good.  I can't wait to spend more time with him, and just bask in the presence of one another.  I'd be really comfortable just getting together to watch a movie as long as I got to be near him.  I forgot how much physical closeness meant to me, not that I really got a lot of it in the past.  It was either annoying because it was all "poke"-based, or not much of anything. 
 
Here's to new beginnings (as I raise my Diet Lipton Green Tea w/ Citrus.)  New beginnings involving re-ignition of the flame for the motivation you need to accomplish any said task, new beginnings in your love life, new beginnings in every and any aspect of your life.  Tell me your stories.  Until next time.
 
Much love and happiness!
 
<3 Megan <3

The "E-Word"

In hopes of getting my blog back up and going again, I've decided to post something oozing with my personality.  Sarcasm and wit aside, there is some really good information in here.  Please take the sarcastic remarks with a grain of salt, and focus on the information that you should be getting from this post.  <3

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Show of hands.  How many of you have heard of the E-Word?  Anybody?  Hellloooooo....echo, echo, echo.  Okay, well let me expand.  Take a look at this.

Ring any bells this time?  Good!!!  We're getting somewhere!

Remember these people?

(Jane Fonda)

(Richard Simmons)

Ahh yes, glorious times.  I mean, who DOESN'T have perfect legs like Miss Jane, and who ISN'T always as happy and perky about everything as Mr. Simmons?  Psh, totally not even an issue.

So, exercise.  First off I want to point out that the word 'exercise' is SO difficult to spell.  Like, it shouldn't be that difficult!  It took me up until a year or two ago to begin spelling it the way it is supposed to be spelt. 

We should be getting a work out just flipping through the dictionary to find out how to spell exercise!

Whew!  Anywho, where was I?

Oh yes, right.  So, is anybody here tonight an avid exercise fan?  YOU SIR, IN THE BACK!!! GET UP HERE AND GIVE ME A HI-5!  YEAH!  That guy knows where it's at.  Nobody else?  Okay, well, let's see if we can change that.

Whenever I hear the word exercise, I sometimes still cringe.  Who wants to get all sweaty and gross, out of breath, red in the face, and bent out of shape while trying to get in shape?  I mean, there's GOT to be an easier way to do this, right?!  Wrong.  You put on the pounds baby, you get to take 'em off.

Now, I know it would be toes awesome if we could all get one of the butt jiggler machines:

...and maybe sip some iced tea while we're at it?  But...

unfortunatley exercise doesn't work like that.  Ahh, that hit the spot.  Yep.  Letting a machine jiggle your butt or stomach fat for a few hours while chowing down on more calories is totally going to do a lot for you.  (Sarcasm, folks.  In case you can't detect it.)  Nope, unfortunately, if you're going to lose the weight, you've got to put in the hard work.  (I know, sucks, right?) 

Well, to make you feel better, let me show you what you DON'T have to do:

Mmmm...I love flipping my legs above my ears in the morning.

Let me get at some of that toe jam before I grab my early-morning glass of OJ & PB on toast.

Oh!  I love me an early morning sprinting marathon or two!  Wakes me right up!

(Okay, so notice I mentioned 'morning' in all three....I promise you don't have to only ever exercise right when you roll out of bed.)  HOWEVER, maybe that could be the best time for you?  Is the rest of your day jam-packed, and are you completely wiped out when you get home at night?  Why not try starting out with an easy (slow) 20 crunches in the morning, and try your hand at one full girly push up.  (On hands and knees, feet in the air.)  [Note: if you can do more, go for it!]  Doing something to get your blood pumping is a fabulous start to the day.  It gives you that fresh pink glow (which looks awesome on everybody, but especially awesome on girls,) and aids in your natural beauty throughout the rest of the day.

Are you more of an afternoon exercise person?  Find somewhere to go on your lunch break.  So, it might look awkward doing crunches in your cubicle or in the middle of the sales floor where you work as a cashier, but here's some other fun stuff that you can work on without anybody else being the wiser about what's going on.

Work on your posture.  This has lots of awesome benefits.  First off, notice how when this guy slouches over, he looks like he has more of a tummy?  That's what happens to you too.  When you stand up comfortably straight, your body returns to its natural alignment.  But beware, you don't want to look like you're strutting around like a peacock on Adderol (sp?).  Improved posture helps with circulation, with breathing (which is kind of important, I mean, if you're into that kind of thing,) and makes you look you're actual size.  (Always better than the negative alternative.)  Also, you actually ARE working some muscles.  Soon your abdominal muscles will probably start to feel a little sore.  That's a good thing!  It means you're using the proper muscles in your body to hold yourself upright.  Keep doing that!

Another thing for you afternoon people.  Do you have any stairs?

This guy knows what's up.  Okay, so I'm assuming you don't have an amphitheatre or ballpark stadium in your work vicinity.  However, even a small set of 10-20 stairs could really work to your benefit.  If you've got 5-10 minutes before you have to go back to work, why not climb some stairs?  It's a great way to get active.  Also, if you climb them really fast (or do that fun bouncy thing that a lot of athletic people can do when they climb stairs,) you'll boost your heart rate, which will get you breathing faster and get your blood pumping again.  Blood moving through your body is a good thing!  It brings all that wonderful oxygen you're breathing to all the nooks and crannies of your body and refuels them to help work for you and make your body a happier and healthy place to live in.

My third suggestion?  I've recently (well, okay, my mommy bought them for me,) invested in Sketcher's Shape-Ups.  Yes, yes, I know.  They run about $100/pair.  BUT, if you don't have stairs in your area or are in an industry that requires you to stand for a majority of your work day, these shoes could be your best friends.

It all comes down to how bad you really want to do this weight-loss thing, I suppose.  I mean, I definitely understand that not everybody has an extra $100 cash lying around that they can just fork over for a brand new pair of shoes.  BUT, the moral of the story is that you need to start making some sacrifices somewhere.  The good news?  It's a sacrifice you will be making for yourself.  It means that you respect yourself enough that instead of driving next door to McDonald's for lunch, you're willing to walk to Cumberland Farms across the street and getting yourself a grinder instead.  Your body in turn will throw a huge party.  It won't have to digest as many fats and unhealthy particles, and it will maybe have some veggies *gasp!* with which to get something out of.  Seriously.  Rager in your tummy.

All you evening and late-night exercisers.  You are harder to categorize because once everyone is out of work, there's no telling where you all will go.  If you don't mind walking in circles, maybe check out your local high school's track.  Try speed walking, jogging (if your body can handle it,) and don't forget to stretch out before ever doing anything strenuous with your body.  

If you need something closer to home, why not utilize what you've got in your house?  Just because I poked a little fun at Richard Simmons doesn't mean you totally can't use his exercise tapes.  I mean, yeah he's a scary-looking dude, but if he is what motivates you to make your body strong and healthy again, who am I to knock that?  Exercise videos are awesome as long as you're paying attention to your body, and not pushing yourself too hard.  Always keep plenty of H2O on hand (I'll mention this again later down in this post.)

Chairs.  Anybody ever have a problem doing squats because your knees, legs, and feet aren't always able to hold your weight?  (I don't mean squatting down just to pick something up, I mean those long, strenuous squats you do specifically in an exercise class.)  Yeah, about that......haha.  Well, as a good back up, try squatting over a chair.  If your legs give out, you won't have fall to far to sit on your butt, and you'll have a place to rest for a few minutes if you need to catch your breath, etc.  Chairs are awesome!  (Also, you could do this over the sofa facing the tv.  That way you're still catching Grey's while getting some exercise in!)

All's I ask is that you please stay safe and be smart about what you're doing.  DON'T go for a three mile walk after dark, DON'T push yourself beyond your limits, and DON'T EVER continue to do an exercise if it's painful to you.  Pain=you're not doing something right OR you're doing something your body isn't ready for just yet.  If you're into lifting weights (not free weights, the other heavy-duty kind,) ALWAYS have a spotter.  Injuries are no fun.  Trust me.

Some quick DO's?

This kid's got the right idea.  Drink water...and lots of it, especially if you've been perspiring (that's a big word for sweating.)  :) 

ALWAYS remember to break in new sneakers before taking them out with you to a full-fledged exercise session.  We don't need to add more pain to the already (hopefully) sore and tired muscles we're about to create.  Wear new shoes around the house for a few days before taking them out to guide you through your exercises.

DO bring some buds (whenever possible!)  Having someone there walking beside you helps the time go by faster.  It's important to always be listening to your body, but having someone there with you to help you finish that last lap around the track for the night, or to chat with you while you're walking your three miles on the treadmill makes it seem not that difficult.  Plus, it'll be awesome to know that you have the support of someone close whenever you feel that your motivation is slipping, or when you need someone to help get you back on track.

At the end of the day, you need to do what's best for you.  If that means waking up at 5am to do yoga and Pilate's 4 times a week, awesome.  If that means walking an additional 20 miles a week, wonderful!  Whatever changes you make are ones that need to fit into your life.  Otherwise, you're going to find yourself stuck very quickly, and possibly extremely frustrated.  Work with someone who knows you best to decide what changes are possible for you and your body, and what things can't be budged. 

The E-Word really isn't so bad after all.  Just take it one step at a time.

Write me if you need moral support!  (I know I do.)

<3 Megan <3

P.S. None of the pictures featured here are mine.  All were found on Google Images.  (Just needed something to demonstrate what I was talking about.)  =)

A Promise of Things To Come

Hi!

So I've been really super busy with everything in my life lately.  I PROMISE that I will get to a new blog post soon.  I have my ideas all picked out, the challenge is now just finding time to sit down and actually write a post.

Hahaha.

I haven't abandoned all of you though, I swear!

Much love until then!
-Megan