Community

Hi guys! So I was doing my devotion this morning and they were talking about being lost. And, that’s a topic that, uh, the devotions have covered before, umm, but, I was thinking about, umm. More, not like being lost physically, but being lost emotionally and spiritually. And I definitely have had those times in my life. A lot of people would say that I am still kind of going through a little bit of that. But the question was, umm, where…do you, or who, uh, helped you reorient yourself, or what helped you reorient yourself. And I definitely think that Community is really important when you’re feeling emotionally or spiritually lost. Umm, for those people that are, umm, religious then definitely your, uh, your church community, or, your umm, faith community of any kind. Umm. For me in High School, or in, College, umm, it was very much the staffs that I worked with in Summer Camp. Faith wise. But, I’ve definitely found…myself, found myself, umm, in the fitness groups that I’ve been, uh, that I’ve joined recently. And it’s super amazing, and I’ve been told, many, many times before in my life that accountability is important. Obviously. And having that supportive buddy, like a workout buddy or, uh, you know, somebody that you can reach out to to make sure that you’re doing all the things that you should be doing. And I’ve joined a couple of fitness groups on Facebook and it’s crazy how centered staying active in that will make you. And it’s blowing my mind actually. So, umm. Yeah, find your community, that would be my phrase for today. Find your community. Make it, make it tailored to you. It doesn’t have to be fitness, it doesn’t have to be faith. It could be theater. I have a wonderful theater community. It could be a quilting community, it could be, uh, whatever. Sports team, you know, anything. Whatever you find, uh, gives you passion in your life. Use that community. Not necessarily asking them for the support or whatever that you would, uh, think you need. But, just get involved. Throw yourself into it. Be fully committed to whatever that group or community is and it’s amazing the emotional support that will be given back to you. So yeah, that’s what I’ve got for today. I hope everybody has a great day. Umm. And…I’ll see ya later.

The Power of a Positive Mindset

It is gross and freezing rainy outside so what better to do then do a blog post to all of my fantastic people. Since I got sent home from work early and have time. So…uh, mindset is a huge topic that I’ve heard on a lot of my umm, Facebook fitness groups, umm, and my, uh,…the…you know, food blogs and other podcasts that people do. And, I used to not really pay attention to that, and/or, think that that really had much to do with it. Plus I was like “Well, I’m doing pretty good. I mean, you know, I have a decent mindset. I don’t really need to work on it.” Such a lie! So, I started working with a trainer one on one. I talked about her before, Nina Schreckengost, she’s amazing by the way. And, one of the things that she stresses a huge amount is mindset and the fact that if…she’s actually said this like legit before, but if you are in the same place mentally…30 pounds from now why would you stay there? Why would you keep that success? Basically that, when we work to lose weight our body changes, so why shouldn’t our mind change with it? Because in order to accept yourself at that new smaller weight, or stronger muscles, or whatever physical place you’re in, if your mind isn’t ready to accept where you’re at, you’re never gonna succeed and stay there. It’ll, you’ll go right back into your old body physical shape because your mind is still there. So, that is something that I’ve, uh, taken and run with in terms of…umm…trying to focus on the positives in my life. Trying to, make myself believe the good things that people say about me. That I’ve been told, but, my normal way to take a compliment is, “yeah, but, you’re being nice.” So I’ve tried to force myself to take those things that people say and that I need to believe about myself if I’m ever gonna to get to where I wanna be. And really think through that. And it’s amazing how focusing just that little bit on making myself a more positive person is amazing. In how I see myself and how I see not only my successes in my weight loss journey, but also those days and weeks and months that I have failure. Where I’m “too busy” to work out or I don’t meal prep correctly, so I go the fast food joint for the whole week and of course the weight comes back on. Umm, so instead of seeing that as a huge failure and not wanting to keep going I’m able to look at that and say “You know what? That’s ok. That’s down, that’s it, we’re gonna start from here, we’re gonna keep going.” Because I know what I need to do to get to where I wanna be. It’s just taking those steps, every day. And reminding myself that I do see success when I try and follow, umm, the paths that’s put in front of me and make those positive changes in my life. So that’s it for today. Umm, I haven’t been keeping up with this. So I’m gonna try really hard to keep posting and talking about, umm, random stuff and also my weight loss journey on the way. I hope you all have a wonderful day and, umm…we’ll see you later!

Five Days Down

All right, so, weight loss journey check in time. Umm, I’m kind of proud of myself, uh, today actually. Umm. Not that I’ve ex…you know made some huge massive change. But, umm, they always say that in your weight loss journey it’s about the little changes that then create the big change. And I…have managed to do workouts, uh, for the last 5 days. Today was day 5. I’m breathing a little heavy and I’m a little sweaty cause I just finished. Umm. I’ve been working out in the mornings, which has been fantastic for giving me energy all day. And that’s a big thing that I’ve noticed this time around. I mean I’ve… previously when I’ve been working out, umm, I’ve noticed that I have energy. Umm. But for some reason, I don’t know if it’s the workouts with the combination of the healthier eating that I’m doing, umm, and things like that. Umm. And the mental practices that I use in the mornings, umm, plus the workouts that’s giving me so much energy. But umm, but yeah, this time I feel crazy good. Umm, And I’ve noticed, nobody else probably would notice. Umm, but I told my trainer, Nina Schreckengost, about this. And I was super excited, umm, and, in a weird way. I was like, this is kinda weird, kind of a weird thing to notice. But I’m kind of excited about it. But the muscles, not that you can see where I’m pointing, between, uh, my hamstrings and my glutes are like super more defined then they were. Umm, and I just randomly noticed it. Like, I don’t know, I was like brushing off my pants or something and I was like huh! Hey there’s muscles there that I didn’t know about. Umm. So that was super exciting. And when I told, uh, Nina about it she was like: well, that means that you’re doing things in proper form, so good job. And I was like Oh! Well thanks! That’s good to know. I’ll keep that up then. Umm, so yeah, so that’s exciting. That’s where I’m at. Five days down. Umm. And yeah, I’m loving every second of it. So…yay! I hope everybody else is having a great week. Happy Tuesday! Umm. And I will see you later!

New Year Breakthrough

So I became, uhh, incognito again. But, uh, here I am trying to get back on track, and umm, do the things that I really feel like I need to be doing. Umm. Like for instance, I’ve really stepped it up both, uh, exercise-wise and healthy eating wise. It may not look like it from what’s back here, but we’re working on it. Umm. But yeah, I’ve…made kind of a major breakthrough in the last week of, uh, the year, into this new year. Ummm. And I…I just realized that I…I’m capable, and I deserve…to be happy in life. And to lose weight, and to be healthy. Umm. There isn’t anything stopping me, except for me. So, I need to stop doing that and start getting healthy and to be the way I want to be. Umm. I was doing a devotion this morning and the, one of the questions was: How much do you think other people affect the way you feel about failure. Or something like that. Umm. And I responded, cause I write in my little journal. Umm. That definitely some, I feel like other people affect my self worth, umm, in some ways. Umm, And I think that’s true of everybody. Umm. But, what I said was that I know that, umm, I feel like, uh, people don’t see me. Uh, I feel invisible a lot. And not…uh, be, it’s not anybody’s fault, I just, it’s how I feel, whether it’s true or not. Umm, but then I know that a lot of that is on me. Umm, I tend to not demand to be seen. And since I don’t always like to be in the spotlight, umm, it’s kind of a big battle.  Because, umm, I don’t like attention put on me. Umm, cause I don’t feel like I deserve it, I guess is how that works. And yet, here I am doing a video blog. So, I, you know. It’s a world of contradictions. But, yeah, so that’s where I’m at. I’m back. I’m gonna chat a little bit everyday and we’ll see how it goes. Have a great week.

The Best Laid Plans

Filmed Friday 12/14/18

Hello friends! So, like most people in America and possibly more then that I am…have been trying to lose weight. Tsk. So…umm, I’ll probably talk more about all the different ways that I’ve tried to lose weight, umm, more, uh, in future blogs, cause that’s sort of, umm, part of why I started doing, uh, video blogs, but….Anyway. So, umm, I had this great plan for this week. You know, like, how you do. You start out your week and like, ok, so this week I’m gonna, make it to the gym three times, I’m gonna do three home workouts. This was my plan by the way. Tsk, umm, I’m gonna eat real good and I’m gonna drink a lot of water. The best laid plans. So, it was one of those weeks. Like, I would wake up in the morning and I’d be really motivated. I would do my morning devotions and I would, umm, clean my house for half an hour, and I would do, make all my food for the day so I had all my food with me to be healthy. Umm, so I did really good on food and my morning routine. Tsk, it’s the gym that is the world’s problem, tsk. So, I…did not make it to the gym, at all this week. Also didn’t do any of my home workouts, point of fact. Except today, cause I was like, I’m over this, I’m gonna post about it on my blog, I better do it. So, workout done today. Did not go to the gym. Did a home workout, as you can see I’m still in my workout clothes. You probably see some of the sweat on my face. Tsk. But, umm, yeah, so, this is me, being real, sharing it will the world. Gonna get better from here. So, my plan, again, planning, tsk. For this weekend is to do home workouts Saturday and Sunday. And then start next week on Monday, going to the gym. So I will check back and I will let you all know how that goes. And like I said I’ll share sort of the rest of my weight loss journey up until now. Uh, as we go throughout the rest of time. And I’ll let you know where I’m at and how I’m doing. So, thanks for listening. Hopefully this wasn’t super long and super boring to you. Umm. Hopefully you’re not still watching it if was. But have a great day and I will see you all next time.

Theatre Family Dynamics

One of the…funnest parts of being…in a show…is building the comradery with your cast mates. And I’m, don’t have that experience on this show, uh “Miracle in Bedford Falls” right now. Cause choreo…chor, choreographying? Wow, good English. Choreographing. I am a little bit separate from all of that, uh…, interaction that happens back stage, umm, before you go on. Uh, I’ve heard a lot of people throughout my experience talking about, umm, you know you have your pre-show rituals, or your pre-scene rituals, or as you come on stage for certain scenes you always talk to this specific person, you have your moment, umm, on stage, uh, during a scene. Umm, especially as like a chorus person where you’re pretending to be a crowd, or your walking through a street scene, so you interact and have looks that you share with different people every time you do a scene. And one of the interesting things to watch as a choreographer, umm, is to see all of those different character aspects come out and see them develop and grow, and umm. For some reason tonight I just…saw a lot more of that and reacted to it and it was funny and it…it made me smile to see some of those things. And…it…it’s interesting…to see the different ways that people interact. Umm. Both the, the actors onstage and backstage, uh, the crew. Umm. I was in a particular vantage point that I could see a little bit of all of that. I saw some of the actors onstage, I saw them offstage, I could see some of the crew in the wings, I could see the pit and how they were interacting with each other and…and then of course I was interacting with different people as well.  And it, it just really kinda brought home that family aspect of doing theater. Umm, and especially with community theater where you don’t do shows for more then a couple of weekends of performances. It really makes you realize how special those relationships and, and family moments are. Umm. You know its part of the reason we do it. Is to connect with each other and connect with an audience and, umm, just really get to explore the human experience in a way that not everyone else does. Umm. So yeah, it was…an interesting food for thought today. So, umm, thought I’d share. Have a good day.

Joys of Procedural Dramas

So, I’m really into…watching…uh, police procedural dramas. Right? I think this is something that umm, I learned… not learned, but I developed a taste for, uh, because of, uh, my grandfather and my dad. Cause we used to watch shows, umm, like NYPD Blue and Law and Order, umm as a family. That was our, we would all sit down to dinner and then we would turn on the tv and we’d all watch and we’d talk about it and, umm, it would provoke conversations during dinner, uh. But it was something that we all enjoyed watching, and commenting on, and talking about.

And, so now I find myself watching shows, umm, things like Blue Bloods, and, uh, NCIS…SSSSes all of them, uh, and the CSI,  uh, Franchise as well, and I…the thing that I love about it…is. Ooo! Criminal Minds too. Oh my gosh!  Criminal Minds fan. And…the thing I love about it is the different dynamics that the different teams have. And I always think, uh, you know, cause as an actor you’re always like “oh what type of a show would I want to be on?” and “What would I wanna do?” I would, I would love to be part of a team like that. Like a team-focused show. Because I think…I just find it so interesting. All of the different shows have different team dynamics, but each one is so interesting. Like I just…I don’t know what it is about them that just draws me in. Cause then I wanna see…I watch them more for all of the different team dynamics and how they interact with each other and, and how the relationships change and build and…you know. It’s just interesting. And to see like the little side interactions that get picked up on by…and I don’t know if those are written in, I don’t know if it’s things that develop naturally. I don’t know, but I find it super entertaining. And I love to tear it apart and…umm…sorry the cat’s doing weird things…umm. But I like to tear it apart and analyze it and, so I re-watch thin…I’m a huge re-watcher. Like I will watch things 12 times to look at different pieces of it. My parents know this. But, yeah, I just, I love it and I, I love to watch those. But then, the problem with that is that I then get sucked in and like watch, binge-watch even when I should be sleeping. Problem. So, that’s probably what I’m gonna do right now. Is I’m gonna go watch some more NCIS: Los Angeles, because that’s the show I’m hooked on right now. So, have a good day, umm, and I will see you all tomorrow.