challenges – sassyfitnesschick

Monday Musings

So as I’m lounging on my sofa tonight drinking copious amounts of coffee I keep thinking it’s already Sunday night, yet it’s not.

Yay…one more weekend day.

It IS entirely probable my brain is fried from a busy day of hosting my 3 year old granddaughters birthday party with a house full of loud, active and busy kids hyped up on youthful energy and a dash of sugar.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s it.

The birthday party was a success and my granddaughter embraced the day with complete wild abandon.

I would not have expected any less from her.

I joke she’s my spirit animal but really I aspire to live each day with the constant joy and enthusiasm she has for all situations.

Ah…but back to the weekend

That means time to work on more of my vintage and antique projects. I need more time! 😫

I’ve picked up some uber cool pieces the past couple weeks. Between doing pieces for my shop ( things are moving out fairly quick there..not a bad problem) I’ve picked up quite a few custom orders as well as repeat customers so I guess you can say I always have a project going on.

Not a bad problem to have.

Ok …I know you wanna see some of the goodies… 😁

What about this turn of the century serpentine dresser?

It gets its name from the style of drawers..

The lady advertised *it needs work”. Thankfully, I have mad repair skills.

Oh…did I mention this beauty was 5.00?

Yes you’re reading right. It’s gonna cost a ton of labor but the end result will be awesome.

***listen to that confidence***

What about this old radio cabinet?

Yeah check out the original label in it…

I have a customer who quickly claimed it. She will put a stereo in where old one was…she wants it for her boys who collect records. I’m sanding and staining it for her.

And then I finished off this custom order. I got this old vanity and bench last summer. I showed it to a customer and she wanted it for a desk. The bench stayed with me for another project

Oh….here’s the after pic….

Sweet, clean and ready for a new adventure.

In more reflective thoughts….

I’ve got two things dancing in my head.

1. When did the world become so full of self entitled people?

AND

2. Do young people really have such a poor working knowledge of basic daily math?

Ok..my first thought.

This has been in my head awhile from various experiences.

Working at my sons shop ( ah.. dealing with the public) I’m often shocked at customers who think they don’t have to pay for a service or think they shouldn’t have to pay what has been charged or he should do work for free,the list goes on…. there are times I’m left speechless.

Hmm… or more like attempting to hold my tongue. 🙄

However I had a personal experience this weekend when a customer went to my shop to buy a piece of furniture. I wasn’t working on this day ( we’re a co-op and as vendors work a few days a month) she had previously messaged me about price and I told her what it was. Yet when she got to shop, she angled at getting a lower price. Her husband even suggested to checker they should get it for even less. Then went on to act shocked/annoyed they had to pay tax.

Like…dude. This isn’t a yard sale and do you even live in this country? This is a store…you pay tax. This is life.

Death and taxes… it’s a given.

Self entitlement. It’s an ugly thing in our society.

My second point.

I had two similar experiences this week. I had stopped at a new coffee shop to you know, share the wealth and to try their coffee.

After getting past the shock of my small cold brew being 4.33 I handed her my money.

10.33

You get it, right?

Now let me say I’m not the world’s best math whiz. I don’t know who ever thought that putting the alphabet in math problems was a good thing and I literally passed high school algebra by the skin of my teeth.

But daily working math? I’ve got that. I can count change back and run mental numbers in my head. I can figure percentages and do estimates etc

You know….Basic life math that we all need.

It appears a lot of young people can’t do that.

The young girl took my money and proceeded to hand me change as if I hadn’t given her the change with my bill. I told her ijust needed 6.00 back.

She then fished more change out and handed me that along with my change and I said I don’t need change, just 6.00.

She laughed nervously and said “ohhhh I get it”

I’m pretty sure she didn’t get it.

Then on another day in a drive thru. My order was 2.52.

I tripped the poor guy up handing him 10.52.

I waited…and waited…wondering if I was gonna get my change back. Finally he slowly handed my money out the window.

6.00.

I said “Hey sweetie I’m supposed to get 8.00 back” to which he asked for my receipt?

Then he carefully handed 2.00 more out the window. I imagined him standing there trying to figure out what fresh hell I was putting him through as he attempted to decipher how much money to give me back.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Is the younger generation so dependent on machines to think that they can’t operate with basic, easy skills?

Remember counting in ones,fives, tens, etc in elementary school? Isn’t that the basic idea in counting money?

What happened here?

When I mentioned it to my son ( who is a part of this generation) his response… they’re all dumb. 😱

That may be a bit harsh, but it’s a disturbing reality in our society.

Maybe we should bring back home economics and basic life skills classes? 🤔

Ok I’ll hop off my soap box now and on to complete randomness you could do without

Do you know Amazon has something called “chip fingers”?

For real.

And yeah, I didn’t know what they were either, but thanks to my little band of misfit friends I got educated.

Evidently they are like little socks for your finger tips so while you’re noshing on Cheetos or Doritos you don’t get those nuclear orange finger tips…I hope you aren’t eating those…. but if you do they are evidently helpful for keeping your fingers clean from eating anything messy.

Ah…how did we ever get along before?? I’ll attach the link so you know I’m not tricking you 😉

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0716QQ651/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_mlnMDb2H2XRVF

Maybe you should buy a set and impress your friends.

Speaking of orange

Ii see all the fall stuff showing up in the stores, but honestly with Texas still rocking July like temps, it does not put me on the fall mood…at all.

Ii did recently give in and buy an adorable sweater with the anticipation that some day I may get to wear it…

I may have bought a thing or two else along with it…..

Seriously though, I’m ready for some of those perfect fall days.

Has fall showed up where you live?

In conclusion…..

My athletic shenanigans. This sums up exactly how I feel…….

I’ve been off running for months. Long story short, an x ray date with my sports doctor, me thinking I’ve done something that’s gonna need surgery and he presents me with “you have arthritis ” was not what I was prepared to hear.

I’ve been doing some PT work to stretch and work muscles that have gotten tight with a greatly reduced physical work load. Gonna see how some of this helps and just go from there. I’ll tell you this…I’m not gonna just take this and go lay down somewhere nor do I plan on giving up.

There will be an upcoming post on my PT adventures…so stay tuned for that 😜

Meanwhile, I’m increasing my strength training days. I even upped my dead lifts last week to 185, so there’s that. Rowing is a good substitute for running so I will continue my rowing skills and of course, cycling. That should keep me busy, right?

Your turn….what’s going on in your world? Has fall showed up yet? What athletic activities keep you busy?

The Thing That Scares You

“Fear will either create you or destroy you.”

afraid

I hadn’t been in long from my morning workout, recovery drink in hand, when I finally landed in a chair and searched up the race I had started training for.

I ran my hand down my legs which were still gritty and grimy from time out on the road and covered in a heavy dose of dried salt …a shower would come soon but first…

My running and cycling that morning had been a part of my training for a local duathlon… my first duathlon.

Of course the fact it was listed as “the toughest in the state” or that it was the “championship race” for this type of event somehow hadn’t scared me off yet.

The website boldly unfolded in front of me… pictures popped up of familiar scenery I was used to seeing out on my runs or cycling adventures.

I felt the excitement stir in me of taking on something new and challenging.

It was immediately followed by tears as I watched young, fast athletes speeding by.

Tears.

What was I thinking?? I’m skating into territory I have no experience in nor am I one of these young trained triathletes. I’ve never, ever done an event like this. I’m crazy.

For the love of chocolate, I’m an ordinary middle aged Mom/grandmother, what I am thinking??

This course is tough. I have a healthy dose of respect/fear for it.

Not in a weird way, but just a respect knowing that it will be by far, the hardest athletic challenge I’ve gone through.

If I’m honest with you, as I was myself, there was that component of feeling scared.

But…why?

What was scaring me? What did I feel afraid of?

terrifying

Ok, yes I understood it would be crazy hard. So maybe there was feeling scared of what if’s…

What if I couldn’t do it? What if I failed? What if I was last? Or worse, didn’t finish?

What. If.

I sat there comparing myself to younger athletes instead of giving myself credit for all I could do and was very capable of doing. I sat there forgetting my own strength and power that I had earned through hours and hours of training.

I lost sight of what I preach to everyone else… you are your competition. You only need to focus on your times, your speeds, your abilities.

No one else’s matter.

Unless you’re an elite. Then it matters very much hahaha 😛

I’ve never been concerned about anyone else’s times or paces. I don’t mentally pit myself against others and decide I’m lacking in some way so this was a foreign feeling to me.

I wiped my face which felt as gritty from dried sweat as my legs did… that shower would need to be soon….

I reminded myself that I was my only competition and if I never started, and never did it, and let some vague fear scare me off I’d never know what new levels I could take myself to.

I’ve had moments in the past as I considered the marathon, and then the 50K. If those don’t raise a tiny bit of feeling scared in you, I don’t know what will.

Thing is, I never, ever allowed myself to camp in the fear zone. I stomped it down, trained, and did it.

So here I am. Registration is now open and I’ve made the official commitment.. you know…. coughing up the money 😉

I know it will be hard but I’m looking forward to seeing how I can do with this. I’ve taken time to remember, I haven’t come out of an athletic back round but only started when I was in my mid 40’s and consider all I’ve been privileged to do.

Doing it is the thing. No matter what, when I cross that finish line, I will win.

I win because I stomped down fears and feelings of inadequacy and I will have accomplished something I’ve never done and I will be stronger for it.

It beats sitting around wondering if I COULD do it and missing out on all I learn in the process. Rest assured, you will be getting updates on my training in the upcoming months. Race day is Nov. 19.

So I’ll leave you with this…

Do you let fears hamper you from pursuing something bigger than you? Have you allowed them to and not gone after something you wanted?

Or… have you stomped down fears and chased something down you wanted? How did you feel?

What did you do to remind yourself you could do it? How did you overcome it?

Tell me I’m not the only one who’s encountered this 😉

“Every single one of us possesses the strength to attempt something he isn’t sure he can accomplish.” ~ Scott Jurek

F.E.A.R.

fear

Growing up I was an avid reader. I still enjoy reading and I like reading on a wide variety of things only now I can do it on my phone, my computer or in book form ( ok I’m still really old school and love nothing more than going to the library and picking out some books, call me a nerd)

One author I readily devoured, was Stephen King. Why?? Why? I’d ask myself when half way through I realized I was terrified. It had crept up on me as subtle as the morning dawn… fear. It gripped my heart and made me drop the book and go find something wholesome and distracting to do so those feelings would subside.

I swear Pet Cemetery left me jumping at every random scratching sound and had me sleeping with one eye open and I couldn’t blame that on Metallica’s music 😉

Geez. He’s so good at scaring you and making you fearful.

Yet, what was scaring me was nothing more than the extreme and deep mind of a gifted writer. I really had nothing to fear.

Yet how often in life can fear grip us when we really have nothing to fear? Fears of the unknown, of “what if”, of what would I do, what if this happen? etc. etc.

Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate threats. But often we fear situations that are far from life-or-death, and thus hang back for no good reason.

Look at that last part again…. hang back for no good reason.

What fear causes you to hang back from something or leaves you worried or causes you anxiety for no good reason?

I was thinking this past week (one night when I was supposed to be falling asleep) about a long ride I was going to do the next morning. The long ride wasn’t what was troubling me. I knew I could handle the mileage. What I was feeling a little fearful about was what I’d encounter on my long ride.

A hill that twisted and turned, which I guess you could say, led up to the top of the mountain it actually was. There was also another significant hill on my route, I felt fairly confident I’d nail that ok.

But this other one, that was troubling me. Ok, if I’m honest with you, my readers all over the world, I was a bit fearful.

discard fear

Why??? That next morning with the miles building under me and settling into the rhythm of the road, it was in my head, a presence almost taunting me.

It left me fearing my abilities, or perhaps, lack thereof to take on something so formidable. I’m fairly new to the world of cycling and I was riding on terrain where they run one of the toughest cycling races in our state.

Did I have what it would take? I knew I was strong but was I strong enough to muscle that hill ?

What I knew I had to get on top of long before I got there, was my mental game. I couldn’t go into that without my mind firmly being in place. If there’s one thing I’ve learned as an athlete, my mental game has to be as strong, if not stronger, than my body.

Fears, will cripple your mental game.

So I began to mentally talk to myself what was I afraid of? Really?

I was afraid of not being able to do it, of failing.

I then asked myself, and what if I couldn’t, what was the worst that could happen?

EEK.. get off and push it up the hill??

I was afraid I wouldn’t have the physical strength to do it, that somehow , I’d be lacking.

Fear can cripple us from moving forward, no matter what it is in our life we want to take on.

I didn’t want to “hang back for no good reason”. I wanted to face what it was head on and know that I could do it. I knew once I tackled it, it would not seem as insurmountable as next time.

The sun was out high in the sky although it was still morning. Sweat had already soaked me and was running down my legs and arms, my gloves were wet under my hands. I felt my legs respond to the incline. I tried to make my breathing as focused and even as when I was in childbirth, slow, steady and measured. My heart, it let me know if was doing it’s job 😉

I took that hill, I focused on each pedal stroke, tried to keep my breathing even ( which was pretty hard!), and knew that when I got to the top I’d be back on my “regular” training ground again.

I was so afraid that thing was gonna eat my lunch.

It didn’t.

I did it. I never let that fear come back that I couldn’t. I felt victorious.

You know what? I just did that hill again yesterday. I have a very healthy respect for it. But you wanna know something?

I improved my time from my first attempt….so there’s that…. I went up it faster.

Fears can cripple us. They can hold us back and keep us from new victories, in all areas of our lives.

I love this quote from Zig Ziglar…

“F-E-A-R has two meanings: ‘Forget everything and run” or ” Face everything and rise” the choice, is yours”

I’ve heard this before, and well for me, face everything and rise is where I’m at.

Now, what about you? Do you have fears that hinder you or cause you to hang back from living? What will you choose? to rise? or to run?

fear 2