CAROL’S CORNER

Come on in! Welcome to Monday night in Carol's Corner. Pull up a chair and stay awhile. Tonight hubby and I took a walk to find cool backdrops for my pic. There's two I like and will show you both of them. This first one I think is really cool. It's taken in front of an Alumni House. It's a huge beautiful building . You can't see the whole thing.

Liked this one too. This was on a corner of a street that was all planted nice with the bricks around it. Love the colors in my blouse today, and it's a thrift store find ladies. Ok, can anyone guess what I am referring to in what I named this ensemble? Calling it, ” I'm “Swinging” as I dance to the beat.”

Another set of jewelry I made that goes perfectly with this ensemble.

I adore this FitBit band with the little hearts and of course I love the color. We took these hand pictures by the roof of my hubby's caddy. You can see part of the insignia, but he couldn't fit the whole thing in.

I'd like use this to start our discussion tonight. I had a fitness day that kind of illustrates this sentiment. In fact I had an amazing day, one I never imagined possible until I did. Today I pushed BOTH mind AND body to do more than I ever thought I could.

This past month I started upping my workouts. I do more than I was doing before. I workout every day whether I think I feel like it or not. I tell myself I have to do this and my body follows. I could easily say I don't feel like it and sometimes I don't, but my mind tells me do it anyway and I do. Today I achieved things I never thought possible. Having a FitBit has made me challenge myself to do more, work harder, and go farther. Today I was able to blast through two milestones in one day. I worked out twice today for a total of 13 miles and with other walking I broke the 25,000 step barrier that I never thought I could achieve and then blasted right through the next one which was 30,000 steps and I probably could have gotten to 31,000 but really had to get busy on this. I might have won 2 FitBit challenges today also. I won't know for 9 more hours after the time is passed to sync their trackers.

Get out of your comfort zone. You can do so much more than you think you can. Push yourself, both mentally and physically. When you do I'm willing to bet that you can accomplish more than you ever dreamed was possible. It won't happen overnight. Every day push yourself to do a little more, go a little longer, and get a little farther. Over time you will gain strength and stamina. Set small goals for yourself and work hard every day to achieve them. Don't let your present weight or your age keep you from reaching them. Like our first graphic said, “Your fitness is 100% mental, your body won't go where your mind doesn't push it.” Strengthening your mind will allow you to strengthen your body and push it to new heights.

You don't have to do everything all at once. If you've only been working out 30 minutes a day, add another 15 minutes and when you're comfortable with that work up to an hour a day. If you haven't been incorporating strength training into your workout regimen, I urge you to do so, it will help make you stronger.

Find the people in your life who can do the above. Stay away from the naysayers. I hope I am one of those people in your life. I want to do all of the above. I want to challenge you to get out of your comfort zone. Try something new, something you thought maybe you couldn't t do before. I want to push you to workout more than you were and longer. You will amaze yourself. My desire is that something I write every day motivates and inspires you in some way.