Another night here in Carol’s Corner, or day, depending on where you are. Hope this finds you all in good health and spirits. As you will see from my pictures at home , I am definitely in the holiday spirit. This picture is in my kitchen. Will be posting more at the end of my blog. Love the Christmas spatula that’s on the wall to the left. Just got it at Hobby Lobby. They have such cool stuff. If I was rich, I could drop a bundle there. They have the most amazing things. Before I get to today’s topic, gotta tell you about my night. For awhile it was a bit of a disaster. Started my evening around 6:15. Went to dinner at a local diner and then after that had some errands to do before I went home. Next, I went to Maurice’s to pay on my bill and of course found something I just had to get. You will be getting a picture when I wear it this weekend. It’s amazing and amazes me , when I see that this is MY body when I look in the mirror. For me that is my biggest motivation to never regress. This is it for me . I will never let myself gain back the weight, ever again. Well then I was going to our credit union to get my weekly cash at the ATM. This is when my trouble started. It was dark of course and I was looking for where I had to turn , and started to turn in the wrong place. As I was trying to veer back to the road my tire hit a concrete curb. Didn’t know till I stopped that I had blown the sidewall of the tire. That’s number one. Went into Top’s and was trying to reach my husband on his cell at home. No answer and I knew he was sleeping. Guess I dropped my glove and saw that it was missing. Thankfully it was still where it must have dropped when I was coming in. I met a lady there that knew me , and she said she would take me to my house after she dropped the groceries off to her mother and took her son home. It was as I was talking to her that number two in my saga struck . My hearing aid was not in my right ear. Now that sent me into a tailspin. You’re talking $3,500 here. I remembered I took it out in the car to talk to my daughter and my mom , before I went into the store. When I first started looking there I couldn’t find it(more panic). Finally I looked down , and there it was on the floor panel where you open the car door. Thank the Lord above that it was fine. Still couldn’t get hubby on the phone. Went back in the store to look for something and then returned to the car. That’s when number three reared it’s ugly head. I couldn’t locate my phone. Got someone to call my number and no sound. Later I found it had shut itself off. Got home and got my hubby to wake up and then he went and changed my tire. At home before we left , found my phone in my Maurice’s shopping bag. That’s when I found out why I could’t hear it. So that’s the saga of my crazy evening , and now I’m sitting in Denny’s composing this edition of Carol’s Corner. Hope you all enjoyed my little tale. As they say. “Alls well that ends well”. Now onto the substance of tonight’s blog. I’ve seen post after post about not being able to stay motivated with their daily exercise and diet plans. Upon seeing that SO much, I decided that tonight’s topic had to be something that would help all of you in this area. I started doing google searches to see what I could find on this subject, and came across a great article from The Department Of Public Health, in Forsythe, North Carolina and am going to utilize some of what they said. It’s entitled ” 10 Ways To Stay Motivated”. We’ll take them one by one. Ok. Let’s get started. Number 1—Revisit your past. Think back to the last time you began a program. Did you reach goal or did you fail? If you’re heading in the same direction as in the past, you have a pattern, one you need to break. You have to break the pattern by figuring out what went wrong last time. Was the exercise too intense, was the diet too strict? Modify what you are doing so you can sustain both your diet and your exercise programs for life. You will have to decide what works best for you. Number 2—Get Real. Most people fail at their fitness goals, because they’re waiting for something spectacular to happen. Know when that happens? When you least expect it. You may be frustrated when your body doesn’t change fast enough , but that’s NO reason to quit. Your body is on it’s own schedule. If you’re burning more calories than you eat, you’ll lose weight, but you can’t control when it happens. Number 3—Get pumped. You might find it difficult to replicate the excitement you first felt in your quest for a healthy lifestyle. But you can get a little more fired up, by going back to your original goal and remembering why you set it in the first place. What are you trying to accomplish? Remind yourself what you do today, has everything to do with where you’ll be in six months or a year down the road. Number 4—Reward yourself. I find this one to be extremely beneficial along your road to success. It’s surprisingly easy to get excited about exercise, if that means shopping. Buy something that motivates you, maybe one of the new gizmo’s they have nowadays, like a FitBit or a pedometer. Maybe you love music , buy that new CD you’ve been wanting, or the new exercise video that just came out. Splurge on some new exercise gear; anything that is not food related. Sometimes that’s all that’s needed to get your groove back. Number 5—Exhaust every avenue. Before you quit , try everything you can to stay on track. Get a workout buddy, join a fitness group, join a gym, maybe even get a personal trainer if finances allow. Try it all, if you’ve done all that and still want to quit, you need to make a decision. Voice it out loud , maybe to another person , that you want to quit. Maybe just voicing this out loud, especially to another person, might just steer you back in the right direction. Who wants to be called a quitter? Number 6—Stop waiting for a miracle. Some people think if you exercise long enough , you’ll wake up someday, and suddenly LOVE exercising & eating healthy. While it may get easier, you might never love it. If you’re waiting for a shining moment of excitement, it ain’t gonna happen. Stop waiting for it. YOU have to make it happen, and then you have to do it all over again tomorrow and the day after that. So just make it happen. Number 7—Find your inspiration. Every day is different . What motivated you today , might not tomorrow. So sift through and find out what inspires you to get moving, or to stay on your meal plan. Maybe there is a pair of pants you want to fit into. Maybe you’re in competition with a friend and don’t want to fall behind them. Competition to me is a great motivator. Work through all the reasons you should workout , until you find the one that works today. Number 8—Open your mind. Being bored is the perfect time to try something new. Maybe you’ve always wanted to take up belly dancing ( I have a cousin who does that), or a Latin Dance Class, or that Spinning Class at the gym. Maybe you’ve always wanted to try yoga. If what you’re doing isn’t working , this just might be the time to find something that will. Number 9. Track your progress. One simple way to stay motivated is to look back and see how far you’ve come. Keeping a simple calendar of the workouts you’ve done, gives you something tangible to happily flip through, adding all the days you exercised. Plus knowing you have to write down your accomplishments, might give you that extra push to keep moving, or maybe doing even more. Number 10. Have consequences. Love this one. Wish I’d have thought of this myself. If your child doesn’t do their homework there are consequences. If you don’t do your workouts, there should be consequences. Have someone hold you accountable, or take away something you enjoy till you get back on track. Always have consequences to your actions. If you don’t, what’s to stop you from quitting? Hope you find this helpful & motivating. Thanks to the people in The Department of Public Health in Forsythe , North Carolina who put together all of these great ideas.

Now onto a review of my two newest walk videos by Denise Austin.

The first one is Denise Austin- Fat Burning Walk. According to the DVD cover it contains 4,200 steps and is two miles. It was published in 2013. It runs for 45 minutes which include the 10 minute bonus , walking abs. It is divided into sections as follows: Warm-Up, Arm Toning, Slim Sprints, Hill Climb, Rolling Hills, Sport Star, Cool Down, and the Bonus , Walking Abs. The sections have unique 5 minute intervals with what she dubs “easy walk” in between each interval. I totally love this DVD and plan to use it frequently. The second one I just got and haven’t had time to do it yet. It is next on my schedule. It’s called Blast Away The Pounds Indoor Walk . It includes 3 Complete 1-Mile programs. This is somewhat older, published in 2005. The entire run time for all three is 50 minutes. The 1 Mile Walks are as follows: Easy Walk this is a good walk for beginners or just when you need something not so strenuous. Fat Blasting Interval Walk. This is A 15 minute Cardio Walk that will get your heart pumping, your energy flowing, and your fat burning, by alternating pace intensity and between upper body and lower body moves. Power Walk and Tone is the last 1 Mile Walk. This is a 15 minute routine that combines power walking & sculpting techniques , to firm & tone the muscles, while blasting away pounds for a sleek & slender body. If this is as good as the first one , I know I’m gonna love it.

Now to some Christmas Photo’s from my house.

This is the one I promised you yesterday. Use this quilt set every Christmas season. Can’t remember if this is the second or third year I’ve had it.

This one is on the door in our main bathroom.

This is my kitchen table setting and the big counter in the other side of our kitchen. Hope you enjoy seeing my house during this Christmas season. More to come. I know this blog was very long, but think there’s lots of useful information here. Please let me see some feed back here guys. Till next time God Bless. Now get out there and get moving!!!