Strength and Conditioning

I don't watch a lot of TV, only because it seems like I am endlessly busy. There is always laundry to be washed, little girls to be cuddled and places to be. But...there are a few shows that I actually make time to watch, no matter what.

Just recently, I started watching a reality TV show called: American Muscle on the Discovery Channel. It's a show that takes place in my hometown (Detroit!), and trains professional athletes plus the local joes. The owner is well known strength and conditioning coach, Mike Barwis. At Barwis Methods, they push willing, athletic bodies to their limits using science and a boot camp type mentality. I personally love it, only because I too want to improve my body strength. I want to run faster and longer, so this show really gets me motivated.

Check it out on Wednesdays!
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/american-muscle

40-Year-Old NFL Cheerleader

(SportingNews)

Brady Hoke's Plan for DB Jabrill Peppers

(Campus Insiders)

Top 30 Shark Facts : Videos : Discovery Channel

Meet the Cast

Barwis on the Science Behind : Videos : Discovery Recommended by http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/american-muscle/videos/hang-cleans-and-toes-up.htm

life.

Sometimes I do not understand what is happening in this world.

I read a post on Facebook about a man and woman who had a baby girl who had a rare tumor on her liver. She lived for 6 weeks in a hospital. They only had photos of her with tubes coming out of her mouth. The father posted a picture of the baby girl on a website asking for help with his photo. He wanted to know if someone would be willing to do some Photoshop to it, so they could have a single photo of their baby girl without the tubes. I barely made it though the post without crying. They received an overwhelming amount of photos, painting and drawings of people who wanted to help.

Later in the day, I read about Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. I had tears, only this time, my tears weren't related to the goodness of strangers. My tears were for 230+ innocent people who did not deserve to die.

let's try this again.

Yo!

I am back.

Writing with a different purpose, with a different attitude. You are going to dig it. I am going to keep the posts short and sweet, with hopefully enough sassiness to keep you coming back.

Guess what else? I run for Oiselle. Boom! I have been waiting to join this great group of inspiring women for over a year and when then announced #theflock on July 7th, you know I was stalking my e-mail like the nerd that I am. Refresh...refresh...refresh. Then, there it was. It's so awesome and now I have some girls to bond with that love to RUN like me. I am super-duper stoked. Can you tell?

I RUN FOR OISELLE!!

xo.

cray-cray.

Remember that one time when you were at work, at it was that special time of the month...and your feelings were acting all 'cray cray' and said something you wish you never would mentioned? Yeah, that was me today. I was feeling all sad and stuff and blurted out a bunch of stuff about my feelings. Oops.Work is never the place to talk about your sappy feelings and stuff. But I did and wished that next moment I could take it all back. At least I gave some co-workers something to talk about at their dinner tables with their spouses. I put that out there for free. Sure, you're welcome.

Note to self: please (sweet baby Jesus) help me recognize the fact that I am not myself and the best idea would be to think on things a while before I say anything. Le Sigh - - as if a sigh in French would help.

vacay.

You'll never guess where we are...

Back to blogging in a few days, y'all!
We'll say 'HI' to Mickey for you.

xoxo

run jackie run!

You may not know this about me...but back in the day, I was pretty fast. Maybe even very fast. In elementary school I won every 50 yd dash or 100 yd dash during field days. On the street where I grew up, grown men (think my Dad's age when I was 10 or 12) in their late thirties or so would always challenge me to a race in the street. I won.

Fast forward to junior high and high school, and let's just say track was my thing. I played lots of sports, but my true talent were in these legs I had. When I played basketball, I was known to run faster than the ball and had to get 17 stitches to prove it. Oops.

But...I have realized once you get out of high school and college, no one wants to race in 100yd dashes anymore. Yet, I still have this passion and burn in my gut to run, run, run. I can explain the feeling I have, or the passion that lives in my belly. My husband laughs at me when I watch college track and field on the Big 10 Network. He thinks it's so boring. I love the butterflies that come when I watch the runners get themselves situated in their blocks. I love the quiet of the crowd before the gun goes off and I love the stretch in the end.

I was never a long distance runner. I was a 100m, 200m, 400m hurdle and leg of the 400m relay kind of girl. I ran my first long distance last year as part of a relay team for the Detroit Free Press Marathon. My leg was the final at 4.6 miles and I loved it. On Saturday, my husband and I are running the University of Michigan/Michigan State 5K Tailgate Challenge, before we leave for our vacation. I will report back on how I did. Please pray for speedy legs!

reinventing myself.

I took a long blogging break. Almost a year to be exact. I think I was bored and I was putting a lot of added stress on myself to write perfect blog posts. I wrote about what I thought people might want to hear about. I wasn't being authentic and I wasn't writing for me. This is probably why it went from something fun to do, to something that I felt obligated to do, even if I didn't want to.

But...the truth is, I want to write and I want to share my stories. I want to write about what I am most passionate about. And above all I want to inspire and to be inspired - everyday, all day, if possible!

So thank you for continuing to check back in here to see if I am alive.
I am and I am so happy to be back.

xoxo.