Gooood morning, good morning! Good morning routines!

Good morning! 

I enjoy reading and learning about other people’s lives. Especially really successful, driven people. I want to know what they eat, how they sleep, what they do for fun, how they schedule their day, how they handle email, how they prioritize stuff, how they avoid burn out…..how do they do it??

One thing I have found that successful people have in common is morning routines. They all start their day very intentionally with the idea of starting off calm, focused and centered. 

Most of them do some form of these things.

Meditation

Journaling

Exercise

Most of them do NOT do these things.

Check email

Open social media

Hit the snooze button

Do work/occupation stuff

Their intentions are to spend the first part of their day focusing on their needs and making themselves an overall better person. Most of them emphasize this is not a long, drawn out routine. 5-10 minutes of meditation along with 5 minutes of journaling while drinking their morning breakfast beverage (most drink tea). And then another 5-10 minutes of stretching, yoga or mild calisthenics. Some of them do their daily workout in the morning, so of course, that takes longer.

Basically, one half hour to start their day on the right foot.

By opening email and social media first thing in the morning, you are letting other people determine how your day starts off. And if it is work email, you are letting others dictate your priorities for the day. These successful people choose not to let other people’s requests/needs affect their schedule or feelings right off the bat. Think about it. If something has happened overnight that is a true emergency, you would already know because someone would have actually called you.

The world won’t end if you don’t connect with the world within 30  minutes of waking up. I promise.

Knowing all that, let me share my routine(s).

When I was teaching my morning routine was routine, but there was nothing calm, focused or centered about it. I got up, fixed coffee, took a shower, made myself presentable, fixed a quick bite and drove to school. And that was on a good morning. It didn’t happen often, but I occasionally overslept or I couldn’t find the skirt I wanted or my hair just would not dry or I left the house only to turn around after three miles because I left my bag at home. Ya know, the stuff that happens to all of us.

It worked, but it didn’t necessarily start my day off in a Zen like state. And since I was already getting up at 4:50, getting up even earlier to do all these hippy- trippy- namaste things was just. not. happening.

Then, once I was no longer teaching and no longer having to get up at the butt crack of dawn, I decided to do a focused morning routine. I would get up, fix my coffee and go sit on our front porch swing. I would bring out three books. The book I was currently reading, a copy of The Secret and my journal. I would spend a few minutes reading and writing positive affirmations in my journal. On a super good day I’d even do a few sun salutations!

And get this, I didn’t even bring my phone outside at all!

Then we sold our house and life got way more interesting. I realized last week that I no longer have that morning routine and I miss it. Currently my morning looks like this.

Get up and fix coffee. Open email and read TheSkimm and The Morning Brew while drinking coffee. Nibble on breakfast #1. Open FB and look at notifications. If I see something important, I’ll read that. Then I get dressed and ready for work.

While there’s nothing terrible about that routine (and I do learn a lot with those two emails!), it doesn’t exactly fit with what I’d like to accomplish for myself in the mornings. As the weather gets nicer, I want to get back into that routine of reading, being thankful and sending out positive juju into the universe. Of course, I could totally do these things inside, but something about being outside just makes it better!

Y’all know I’m big on goal setting, so here we go. I’m setting a goal to get this morning routine back on track at least twice per week. I’ve got to go dig my copy of The Secret out of storage and get my journaling pen ready, but that part is easy. It just the part of dragging my lazy-non-morning-person butt up and at ‘em that is hard!

What does your morning look like? 

What could you do to make it a more positive experience?

Stay Strong Y'all!


I just updated my "Affiliates I Love" page, check it out!

Hey, I know you may not know me that well, but can I ask you to do something for me? Do me a favor and subscribe to my email list. Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me on Facebook at Angie McCord, Fitness, Nutrition and Life Improvement.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more random fun over at IG!

Proudly linked up at :

Working At Home: Distractions, Focus and Getting Stuff Done

Working at home is so amazing! Sitting in your jammies, busting out work while sipping coffee and eating bon bons. Stopping to take a mid morning nap and do a little yoga. Fixing a lovely lunch and then powering through a To-Do list that would make Santa jealous.

Yeah right.

Working at home looks more like this.

Fire up laptop. Open needed documents. Work five minutes. Computer decides to update.  Restart computer. Open needed documents. Work three minutes. Remember you need to wash gym towels. Go start a load. Computer goes to sleep. Open needed documents. Computer battery low. Find charger. Work ten minutes. Spouse comes in and needs help with a project outside. Need food. Open needed documents. Husband leaves TV on. Get sucked into Netflix. Open needed documents. Work 7 minutes. Realize you need to brush teeth. Open needed documents. Wait, you have to pee! Work 5 minutes. Remember to move towels to dryer. Open needed documents. Start signing song that's playing on Pandora. Need calculator. Find calculator. Work 5 minutes. Phone goes off. Solve life crisis for somebody. Open needed documents. Remember you need to make a Facebook post about Paleo Challenge. Open needed documents. Realize it's time to get ready to go to your afternoon work.

Yep, that's typically how it goes for me if I don't really structure and discipline myself. 5 hours of "work" time results in only about 30 minutes of actual work. This is how I get things done now.


Step 1: Decide how long to work and what I'm working on.

I'm usually good for a thirty minute stretch and then my brain needs a break so that's what I usually shoot for. I decide exactly what I want to work on and what I want to accomplish in this work period.

Step 2: Gather everything

Do a brief run through in your head of what you will need to get this task done. Paper, pen, calculator, water, charger, documents open on your computer, files, receipts, reference books...whatever you need, gather it now.

Step 3: Turn off all distractions

For me, this means the TV has to be off. I cannot work if I am even remotely interested in what's on at the moment. Somewhere in my brain is always listening to what is being said and that keeps me from being as productive as possible. I do like to have music on, but it cannot have lyrics and it cannot be instrumental versions of songs with lyrics. This means that 'Classical Focus" on Pandora is great, because it has no words, but it has a soothing rhythm. And while I love the "Pop Goes Classical" channel, my brain will be signing, "Para...Para...Paradise...." from Coldplay even though it's all violins and cellos.

Turning off all distractions also means that nothing can be open on my computer except the files & tabs I need to accomplish the project. If I am working on registration forms and score cards for an event we are hosting, then no internet tabs, no temptations! If I am working on a nutrition plan for a client, I will have My Fitness Pal open, but that's it! No email, no Facebook...

Put your phone on Do Not Disturb and then turn it upside down. Nothing will probably happen in thirty minutes that can't wait.

Step 4: Pee

Your bladder has an innate timer set to go off exactly two minutes after you sit down to work. And it is really hard to work and focus for a full thirty minutes when your bladder is doing everything in it's power to get your attention. Prevent this by going before you start. Even if you don't think you need to go, as my Grandmother said, try!

Step 5: Set a timer and work

Now you are ready to go hard! Make sure your computer is awake and all files are ready. Grab that phone one last time and set a timer and turn your phone back over. Work hard and no peaking at the timer! Inevitably, during your work time you will think of 90 million things that are really important that you need to do RIGHT NOW that have nothing to do with the project you are working on. Have a notepad beside you and jot down those random thoughts when they pop into your head and keep working. When it goes off, proceed to Step 6! Or, if you find yourself in the Zone and working like the Little Engine That Could, then keep going!


Step 6: Play!
Yay you! You earned a little break! Grab a snack. Jump on the Book of Faces. Look at that postie note with all the things you need to and do those that are truly important.

Step 7: Repeat
To have a truly productive day, repeat this cycle.

I think that you'll find you can get more done in 3-4 mini hyper focused work session each day than if you just spend 5 hours of your day "working".

Stay Strong Y'all!

Hey, I know you may not know me that well, but can I ask you to do something for me? Do me a favor and subscribe to my email list. Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts, I'll send you my weekly planner printable!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me on Facebook at Angie McCord, Fitness, Nutrition and Life Improvement.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more random fun over at IG!

November Has Me Like...

Remember the title of this blog is "Doodleturtle's Random Thoughts" and this is one of those random posts!  I've just got so many things running through my head I have to get them out!

First, I've been quite negligent in posting about our hobo life since...... we are no longer hobos!! About three months ago we purchased some land and we moved our motorhome from the campground to our land! Let me tell you, this place is beautiful, but it was a dump. TWO single wide trailers (circa 1976 and 1965) were on the property and the people who lived here before us did not believe in trash pick up. The options they saw were 1) burn it, 2) throw it in the woods or 3) build a storage building to put it in. 

No joke. 

So we've spent the last 3 months hauling off trash and trailers and tearing down buildings. There is still a ton of work to do, but it's much, much better! We have a great old barn we've fixed up and many spots that would be perfect for our future house.

And speaking of house, we've decided sadly that Betsy just won't do through the winter for us to live in. She's a great motorhome and we are sad to see her go, but she's just too small. And since she's built more for warmer climates, we just don't think she'd be able to handle a cold winter. It's crazy that we've lived in her since March! 7 months! I don't think I ever posted pictures, so here you go. These are from the day we purchased it.

This is our kitchen, the hallway/bathroom and a view into the bedroom.

The view from the bathroom looking at the kitchen and living room.

Our dainty little bathroom

Our bedroom

Tiny right? Yep, that's been our tiny house for the last 7 months!

In her place, we are getting a new camper! Fingers crossed our new-to-us "home" will be delivered Friday! It's a fifth-wheel and has SOOO much more room than we have right now. I'm so stinking excited to actually have a living room and an OVEN! Yep, we've not had an oven in months.

It's not new at all, but it's new to us and fits perfectly in our budget and will help us get to our financial goals quickly. Score one for the month of November!

The kitchen and hallway.

Our bedroom..with a king size bed!

Also starting November 1 our box is hosting an "Earn Your Turkey Dinner" Paleo Challenge. It's been a loooong time since I was straight Paleo, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. It's 23 days leading up to Turkey Day of lean meats, veggies, nuts, seeds and fruits. No dairy, grains, legumes, artificial sweeteners or alcohol. 

Y'all, I've eaten oatmeal for breakfast for probably the last two years. Aaaargh..... And I've eaten Taco Bell 4 times a week for the last year.....Chicken Power Bowl, look it up, yum!!! 

There are definitely some changes in my diet I will making, but I'm looking forward to cleaning it all up and sharing the progress with you guys. 

One kink I haven't decided on with the Paleo Challenge is what to do on my trip...Yep! Another exciting thing about November is that we are going on a trip! I'm not giving away details yet, but the countdown is on and I'm stoked. 

So there are 3 big things I'm looking forward to in November! Wait, make that 4! 

J and I will be celebrating 22 years of marriage in November! What?!?! Crazy right?

Stay Strong Y'all!

Hey, I know you may not know me that well, but can I ask you to do something for me? Do me a favor and subscribe to my email list. Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts, I'll send you my weekly planner printable!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me on Facebook at Angie McCord, Fitness, Nutrition and Life Improvement.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more random fun over at IG!

Hobo Life Week 12

Thoughts on hobo life.

Almost 3 months ago we closed on the sale of our house and became what we affectionately call ourselves, hobos. We gave away 60% of our stuff and put the other 40% in storage and moved into our motorhome. Our goal is to live simply and pay off debt and “reboot” our lives as we both approach the 40 year-old milestone. We see so many people living paycheck to paycheck without any choices in their lives because they have to work to pay the bills and they are suffocating under all the stuff they have. And even though they have all this fun stuff, they can’t enjoy it because they are stretched so financially thin.

We don’t want to be those people. We want to truly own what we have, not be renting it from the bank. We don’t want to live in anxiety over money and things. We are saying no to a lot of things now so that we can say yes later.

What’s the Dave Ramsey saying? Live like no one else today so that you can live like no one else tomorrow?

 It’s been fun, but it’s also been challenging. Here’s a little update on the highs and lows of being a hobo.

Ticks- Have you ever heard of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever?  I had, but didn’t think it was anything anyone really got anymore. You know, like Polio or the measles. Turns out that when you move to a camper and live in campgrounds you are way more likley to encounter ticks. And those said ticks are very likely to bite you and make you sick. 20 days of antibiotics later the spots, fever and headaches are gone.

Paying Off Debts- Think about how much you spend on your house each month. Mortgage/rent, insurance, electricity, gas, water, trash pickup, pest control, telephone, internet, cable, etc. Add it all up and then realize how much you could pay toward debt or put away each month with these costs reduced or gone entirely! Yes, it stinks sometimes not having space to spread out in the floor, but when I get to pay off a doctor bill or an old credit card bill, it makes up for it!

Mowing/Maintenance/Landscaping- Jeremy is totally loving not having to mow!

No TV- Well, that’s not true. We have a tv and thanks to a high tech antennae booster, we get ONE CRAPPY CHANNEL! I’m sorry if you work at Channel 24, but your channel is terrible. First, it’s a hybrid of the CW and MeTV. Neither of which are known for stellar programming, but it seems to be the lowlights of both are what we get. If you get up at 6:00 AM you can watch the Brady Bunch, which I’m totally down with, but then you get a dose of some self-important guy at 6:30 proclaiming himself to be “your favorite apostle”. Um, no. At 7 you get the news. I’m considering applying for a job there because, me with zero television experience, could read the news way better than any of their anchors. After that it’s a couple of hours of Matlock and Diagnosis Murder, followed by all the westerns ever made. I’ll spare you the details of the entire line up, but I’ve successfully resisted the urge to buy a microwave roaster, a multi-saw (FILLS ALL YOUR DIY NEEDS!) a year’s supply of Omega XL (NOT A FISH OIL!) and a 7 piece essential kit of IT Cosmetics. #winning

Reading- Since I’m not watching a lot of television, I’ve been doing a lot of reading. Reading is one of my favorite hobbies and lately I’ve been really indulging. Since we are trying to not spend and not accumulate stuff, I’ve found two great ways to get my reading fix. First, the humble library. You know that place we all use to go before amazon.com? And did you know that most libraries have eBooks now so that you don’t even have to physically go to the library? I just open up my iPad, go to the library’s website and download books for free! The convenience is a total win. The drawback is that eBooks are really popular and sometimes the wait for a book is glacial. Take the new Steven King book for instance. I just put myself on the hold list for it and I’m number 36 in line. Since you can keep the books up to two weeks, it will definitely be no longer than a year and a half before I get it. WOOOO!

               

 The other way I’ve been sourcing reading material is the local thrift shop. Magazines are 10¢ each and books are 50¢-$1. I buy a pile for a couple bucks, read them and then donate them right back.

Kayaking- Since we stare at the lake every day, we’ve been thinking about getting kayaks. We’ve hummed and hawed over sit in or sit on for quite awhile and overall were just afraid to go for it. What if we purchased them, used them once and then hated them? After searching around at prices and styles, we found some that we thought we would like and that we thought we could get our money back out of if we hated them. We looked at our budget, dug out some old gift cards, sold a few items from our storage building (more on that below) and headed to hell-mart to make the purchase. Completely worth it!

Storage- The 40% of our stuff that we kept is in a storage building and it is a huge storage building. It’s full of things that I didn’t think I could live without or part with. Kitchen utensils, fancy dresses, side tables, papers from college, four wheeler parts, toys from when we were young, toys from when we weren’t young. That big storage building comes with a price tag and now every time I go there I look around and wish it were all gone. Of course there are some sentimental items that I don’t want to part with like baby books and wedding pictures. But for most of it, I’m just done with it. When we do wind up in our next place, I simply cannot imagine bringing all that stuff into it.

I realize that not everyone can just chuck it all and go hobo like we did. We are lucky that we have a really supportive child who doesn’t mind that we are “homeless” and she has her own apartment. Even if you can’t go at full steam, maybe you can be inspired to do something to free up your space and finances.

Stay Strong Y'all!

Hey, I know you may not know me that well, but can I ask you to do something for me? Do me a favor and subscribe to my email list. Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts, I'll send you my weekly planner printable!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me on Facebook at Angie McCord, Fitness, Nutrition and Life Improvement.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more random fun over at IG!

Got 10 Minutes? Get Stuff Done!

Mondays are crazy busy days because I coach mornings and afternoons, I usually have a few private training appointments, I coach CF Kids, my personal training is usually long on Mondays and all of my nutrition coaching clients check-ins come in on Sunday night for review on Monday. I love my job and all that I get to do, but Mondays are a wee bit stressful!

Today is Tuesday, so it’s an “easy” day work wise. 

By design, Tuesday is the reward for Monday. There’s little I “have to” do. It’s really easy to be a bum. But I’m not a very good bum. If you have time, shouldn’t you be doing something productive? Today’s weird though in that I’m having trouble getting going….

 I feel like I need to write a blog post today, but I can’t decide what to write about.

 I feel like I should be working on a few projects of mine, but I’m not inspired.

I really need to spend some time stretching, but it’s raining and I only have room to stretch outside (hobolife problems).

The bathroom needs cleaning, but darn, I’m out of cleaning wipes. (Excellent excuse, right?)

Do you ever feel that way? That there is stuff that needs to be done, but you just can’t get going?

Hey, there's nothing wrong with a good lazy day! However, I can’t really say that it’s ok to do nothing today because I spent all day Sunday reading a good book and laying in my snazzy pvc lawn chair (see my IG for my ridiculously happy recent purchase). 

So here’s the deal I’m making with myself. I will commit 10 minutes to each of the things I need to do. Just 10. I’ll set the timer on my phone and turn on a good podcast and work for ten minutes on each task. If that’s all I do, then at least I did something.

If the juices get flowing, then I can come back and work some more after I finish the other items.

That’s the deal I’m making with myself. Just 10 minutes, right? That’s no big deal!

I’ve had a lot of success with this method and have used it to get many goals accomplished and projects finished. Try it the next time you are struggling to get going on a project, housework or even exercise and let me know how it goes.

Stay Strong Y'all!

Hey, I know you may not know me that well, but can I ask you to do something for me? Do me a favor and subscribe to my email list. Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts, I'll send you my weekly planner printable!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me on Facebook at Angie McCord, Fitness, Nutrition and Life Improvement.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more random fun over at IG!

Hobo Life Week 1

We’ve officially been homeless for one week now and it is proving, so far, to be an awesome choice.

             First breakfast as a hobo. 

Since I haven’t posted about our plans and the recent changes in our lives, I guess I should get you all up to speed. We had our home on the market for much of 2015, but got tired of keeping it show ready all the time. We wanted to move closer to our business and cut the 35 minute commute down some, but we pulled it from the market in the Fall of 2015 and just decided to stay put awhile longer.

About that same time we purchased an older motor home with the intention of taking a weekend trip somewhere every month. It seemed like a great way to be adventurous and would allow us to be always looking forward to something. We took our first trip to Florida in December and loved it!

Flash forward to January 2016 when someone who had expressed interest in our home previously came back and gave us a solid offer. We accepted and then quickly realized this was an opportunity to do something crazy!

Once we signed the paperwork on the house sale, we had 30 days to move out.  You wouldn’t believe how much stuff you can cram in a home if you live in it for 12 years! Holy crap! We probably took 20% of our stuff straight to the dump and 40% to the local thrift store. The other 40% went in storage and we are living in our motorhome!

We have a lot of plans to see the US eventually, but right now we are focusing on simplifying our lives. It’s amazing how much stuff we don’t miss! And it’s weird how much free time we have when we have no tv and no housekeeping to do.

I was setting outside last night panicking because I felt like I should be doing something. Normally when we get home from the gym I spend an hour or so doing dishes, washing laundry, sorting the mail and then plopping in front of the tv for an hour or so. When your home is less than 200 square feet, cleaning takes no time. And when you don't have cable or dish, you can't mindlessly watch for hours on end. 

And since we are using just our cellular data to do the internet thing, we aren’t quite sure yet how that is going to work. We aren’t scrolling through the Book of Faces or the IG all the time since we are trying to conserve data and that has opened up a lot of time as well.

There are a few things we haven’t quite figured out yet, but so far, the pros outweight the cons. And because the cons are kind of funny, I’ll be sure to fill y’all in on them soon.

Until then, I’ll be living the hobo life.

What would you do if you suddenly had 3-4 more free hours each day? Where should be go for first official hobo trip? 

Stay Strong Y'all!

Hey, I know you may not know me that well, but can I ask you to do something for me? Do  me a favor and subscribe to my email list. Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts, I'll send you my weekly planner printable!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me me on Periscope, I'm crossfitang.  I broadcast about fitness, nutrition, life improvement, planning and organizing and lots of random stuff.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more fun over at IG!

Things That Annoy The Hell Out Of Me

I am normally a very positive person and this blog is my way of motivating myself and others to live our Dream Lives. However, I am human and this has been brewing for a bit. I present my list of

Things That Annoy The Hell Out Of Me.

This isn't some high and mighty list of sins and trespasses such as liars and drama queens. These are just little things that piss me off. In no particular order....



1. People that don't know how to use a multi-exit. For example, most fast food places have a really wide exit only area. If you are turning left, you go to the far left. If you are turning right, you go to the far right. Two cars should fit easily. Don't be the person who attempts to turn left from the far right. I will go to your left and turn right in front of you.

2. The word "Firstly". Is that even really a word??

3. The Oxford Comma. I am sorry Brooke and Samantha, I hate it. It's clutter. It's redundant in 90% of its uses. If Brooke, Sam and I are going to the grammar store, we don't need to buy an Oxford Comma for this sentence. I know, I know. We will have to agree to disagree.

4. Reality shows like "Alaskan Bush People" and "Moonshiners". Dear God, where do they find these people? My IQ drops 3 points every time I see these shows.

5. Enhanced Eyebrows. Girl, you are pretty! But why do you have those big black things on your head? If your eyebrows are drawn on with a sharpie marker and take up a large percentage of your face, just don't.

6. Protein bags that won't stay shut. We are paying good money for the protein. Can't they take some of that money and make a bag that will actually close? Ever heard of Ziploc? Thank goodness I sell Tupperware, I just dump it out.

7. Having to turn the drier on. I frequently put wet items in the drier. I frequently forget to turn it on. In 2015, shouldn't it just know there are wet clothes in there on turn itself on?

8. People that call multiple times, but never leave a message. I know we all hate voicemail, but if I don't know you, I'm not picking up. If I don't know you, I'm not calling you back unless you tell me why you are calling. 

9. Ladybugs in the house. I swear to all things holy, I will set my whole damn house on fire if another lady bug gets in my water jug.

10. FB messenger harassing me to turn on notifications. I hate notifications period. Every third time I open up FB messenger it asks me to turn on notifications. NO! Mark Zuckerberg, if I have not said yes in the 1000 times your app has asked, I ain't going to change my mind! STOP IT! And make that annoying little red 1 go away!

There you have it. 10 things that currently drive me berserk. #firstworldproblems #effittuesday.

What things would be on your list?

Stay Strong Y'all!

Hey, I know you may not know me that well, but can I ask you to do something for me? Do  me a favor and subscribe to my email list. Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts, I'll send you my weekly planner printable!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me me on Periscope, I'm crossfitang.  I broadcast about fitness, nutrition, life improvement, planning and organizing and lots of random stuff.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more fun over at IG!

I Hate Winter!

57 Days Until Spring!

I saw this somewhere on the internetz today and smiled big! I hate winter & I hate being cold. However, I don't mind snow. I mean, if it's going to be so freaking cold I can't feel my extremities, at least I'll have something pretty to look at. 

With the oncoming snowpacalypse, I'm reminded of when I was a teenager and learning to drive. One day my stepdad took me out in the snow so that I could learn how to drive in it. I had an five speed manual 87 Fiero and I LOVED THAT CAR! (I swear, if you have a Fiero for sale, I'll buy it!). He stressed to me to go slow and steady and to not aggressively accelerate or brake. 

I was doing great on the snow covered back roads and was feeling pretty confident. I mean, it wasn't that hard.... I guess my confidence/cockiness was showing because he reached over and pressed on my right thigh causing me to press the gas hard. You can imagine what happened! The car started to slide and spin and I, the oh so smart teenager, stood on the brakes! We did a nice little 180 and then wound up nose first into a ditch.

Remember I said it was a Fiero, right? (If you don't know what those cars looked like, google it.). My step dad laughed really hard and said,
"I told you not to hit the brakes."
"I didn't!" I exclaimed.
He pointed at my right foot.
It was still pinned to the brake and the brake was pinned to the floor.

Ending up in the ditch that day was definitely a failure. However, I learned a lot from it. Thankfully, someone encouraged me to get back on the road that day and to keep driving.  I'm now a pretty decent driver in the snow and ice. I drove a Camaro through many snow storms and have plowed many a backroads with my Prius. 

Why am I telling you this story? Well, how are you doing on your New Year's Resolutions? Have you driven them off in the ditch? Did you give up and quit trying to drive? Did you decide it was too hard?

If you did, let me be the person that encourages you to get back behind the wheel. So you had an accident. No biggie. Get back in the drivers seat and take charge of your goals! You can do it!


Things I'm Loving This Week:

                                                  


I just found these bars and OMG they are amazing! They taste like iced sugar cookies! And they have 22 grams of protein!











This app is awesome! Strides lets you track your goals easily and sends you reminders when you are slacking! You'll love it!










What has you excited this week? I'd love to hear! 

Stay Strong Y'all!

Hey, I know you may not know me that well, but can I ask you to do something for me? Do  me a favor and subscribe to my email list. Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts, I'll send you my weekly planner printable!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me me on Periscope, I'm crossfitang.  I broadcast about fitness, nutrition, life improvement, planning and organizing and lots of random stuff.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more fun over at IG!

I'm Starting A New Monthly Subscription Service!

So you've probably heard of BirchBox or WODbox or MessyBox or one of the hundreds of other monthly subscription services. You have right? I love BirchBox and have referred many of you to it because it's a fun way to try new health and beauty products. And it's like Christmas every month! Check it out, if you haven't already, at this link.

Well, this morning I stumbled across a website that helps you start your own monthly subscription service! Yes! How fun would that be? Every month I could pick out some fun goodies to mail to really cool people?!?! What theme would I choose? Healthy eating? Flexible Dieting? Organizing? Fitness? Turtles? And then I got it. Who's ready to subscribe to get a monthly...


"RANDOM BOX OF SHIT!"

Yes! Every month, for the cute little amount of $9.99, you can get my artfully curated Random Box Of Shit!

February's box: A peanut butter sample, a hair tie, some thumb tacks, a jump rope and a ninja throwing start!

March's box: A Keurig Cup, an antibiotic ointment, pretty file folders, a Godiva chocolate and a bull whip!

April's box: A bean sprouting kit, a 1/2 pound peanut butter cup, crazy socks, a packet of cute labels and a Dos Equis!

I'm so jazzed about this! Something for everyone! Who's with me? Subscribe today!

LOL, so maybe the world isn't ready for this fabulous idea, but if you are............

Stay Strong Y'all!

Hey, I know you may not know me that well, but can I ask you to do something for me? Do  me a favor and subscribe to my email list. Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts, I'll send you my weekly planner printable!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me me on Periscope, I'm crossfitang.  I broadcast about fitness, nutrition, life improvement, planning and organizing and lots of random stuff.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more fun over at IG!

Planning My Life With The 2016 Intentional Life Planner From Just AGirl Abby

Today I want to tell you about my 2016 Intentional Life Planner that I purchased from Just A Girl And Her Blog. It is only $10 and I am really enjoying it.

To start off, I grabbed a binder I already had that I had and put some pretty scrapbook paper in the front and side. I also made a cute little name plate, but you could get a pretty new one like this or  a professional looking one like this.

The first thing I liked about the 2016 Intentional Life Planner is that you get a nice full year calendar for both 2016 and 2017.

There is a page for you to record important dates which is great for me because I always forget birth dates!

I love the "In Five Years" page! I haven't filled mine out yet, but I have a a LOT of ideas on my head and plan to have it written out by the end of December.

I am a huge believer in goal setting so I really appreciate the goals for  the year page. The action steps are great because many of us set goals and then don't plan how we are going to achieve them! "Dream Life 2016" is a little project I'm working on to help myself and others reach their goals and these pages match perfectly! (See below to find out more about that project) I have a brain dump page going on right now with goals and ideas and plan to have these pages filled out by the end of December as well!

Every month starts out with a great quote and a monthly focus goal sheet. I like how it allows you to tie in your yearly goals to each month.

Next comes the big, overview calendar for the month. I like to fill it up with appointments and the tasks that happen every week. Blog and periscope ideas go on there as well.

Next in the planner is the weekly breakdown.Each day has a To-Do section and an hourly breakdown. I LOVE THIS! The day by day hourly breakdown is what sold me on this planner. When I have really busy, hectic days, planning it out hour by hour makes it way more manageable.

One con to this planner is that printing it out can be tricky if you don't have a great printer. However, the quality and price makes that a very trivial matter.

And I don't know if it was something in the file or my really crappy printer, but everywhere in the planner that has a "W" printed weirdly.

(I'm pretty sure it's because my printer is 10+ years old and I purchased it on Black Friday for only $25.)

Check out my video if you want more details of how I use my planner!

Stay Strong Y'all!

Hey, I know you may not know me that well, but can I ask you to do something for me? An early Christmas gift if you will? Do  me a favor and subscribe to my email list. Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts, I'll send you my weekly planner printable! And you'll be the first to get my Dream Life 2016 Goal Printable!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me me on Periscope, I'm crossfitang.  I broadcast about fitness, nutrition, life improvement, planning and organizing and lots of random stuff.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more fun over at IG!

***Affiliate link*** because I am an Amazon Associate they give me a little thank you gift of a few pennies if you shop through my link. The price is the same for you as if you just went to straight to Amazon. Even if you don't want to buy a new binder, use my link and buy something you would normally buy, ok? And then I can write in my YMJ that someone shopped through my link and earned me a penny for my thoughts. :)