saying no – Burpees to Bubbly

Good morning! I’ve been days ahead in this week so I”m very happy it’s FINALLY Friday- FriYAY for sure 🙂 I appreciate all of your kind responses to my post on Monday. I always like to hear what you have to say about topics like food, body image, self acceptance, etc. Do you guys like those types of posts? I like to make sure I’m posting things that interest both me AND you, so I’m all ears!

Let’s talk about some Friday things though!

Purity Organics– I received a wonderful package a few weeks ago from Purity Organics, which is an all natural, organic super juice/tea/coconut water company. I’m not always big on juices (I’d rather eat my fruits and veggies), but these juices are fantastic. They’re a blend of fruits, roots, veggies and spice and each one has such a unique flavor. Even though there’s more sugar in it than I like to drink, none of the sugar is added; it’s all from the fruits so I feel better about it. Plus, I only drink half at a time so as to not load up on a lot of sugar at once.

Friendsgiving- Tomorrow is our second annual Friendsgiving with my college friends and I am SO excited. Unfortunately RM won’t be able to join me as he will be in Portland with his guy friends, but making it into a girls night for me isn’t the worst thing in the world 😉 Since my family doesn’t do a big Thanksgiving event it’s fun to do it with my friends.
Saying No- Wednesday just one of those days. Work was stressful, I was bummed because no one signed up or showed up for my 5K bootcamp and I was still battling a cold. I had made a prior commitment to go see Anna Kendrick in the city with some work friends, but by the time I finished my [solo] run, I just didn’t have it in me. I hate bailing and saying no, but I just knew it was something I had to do. These days, between working 9-10 hour days in the office then teaching 3 days in a row after work, I find myself not usually up for much else on those days (besides eating and sleeping 🙂 ), so in hindsight I shouldn’t have made the commitment but it sounded so fun! Luckily my work friends totally understood and I’ll say that once I said I wasn’t going I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. Going home was exactly what I needed/wanted and I’m thankful I listened to my gut and did just that.

Book Club Books- Call me crazy, but I’m currently in two book clubs, haha One was started with my SMC girls and one was started with my work friends. For my work friends book club, we are currently reading Big Little Lies and so far I’m loving it! It’s a long book, but I’ve been flying through the pages. My other book club is reading Underground Railroad, which was on Oprah’s book list and I’m excited to start it! I was kind of annoyed, though, because I requested it from the library WEEKS ago, and it still didn’t become available so I had to buy it. Hopefully I’ll be able to share it with people after I read it! Do you have any suggestions for good book club books?

Seaport Sweat Winter Series Updates- Unfortunately, due to the fact the runs (mine and the Friday noon one) were just not picking up, they decided to cancel them for the rest of the series. I was initially really bummed, and felt like I failed since I couldn’t get a solid commitment/group of runners each week, but it’s actually a bit of a blessing in disguise. I was teaching 3 days in a row after work, which is a lot! And it makes it hard to do anything else after work, whether something as simple as running errands or going to a class or meeting up with friends, I felt like I couldn’t do anything! So, as sad as I am that it wasn’t successful, after having a good group last night (9 people!), I’m hopeful that my Thursday night will continue to be a good crowd because that class is a BLAST to teach. Seriously! It turned my entire week around, so thank you to everyone who showed up 🙂

And that does it for me- I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend- can’t believe it’s the last one before Thanksgiving!!

Questions for you: How was your week? Do you like juicing or drinking smoothies? Do you do a friendsgiving event? Do you have an easy time saying no or do you try to fit everything in? Do you have any good book suggestions:? How do you feel about winter outdoor workouts?

Yup. I said “no”. As someone who always says yes (or tries to always say yes), this was a big accomplishment. Let me explain:

On Wednesday, I got an email from the instructor who teaches the 5:30 Cardio Conditioning saying she was really sick and asking if I could sub. Normally, I am more than willing to help and am really lucky that my job has the flexibility that allows me to leave early when I need/want to, but for some reason on Wednesday, it was the LAST thing I wanted to do. I was having a rough couple of days and was really looking forward to going for a run before teaching so I could clear my head. Plus, I was REALLY sore from my workout on Tuesday and didn’t want to do any lifting, which I would have done had I subbed.

I literally hemmed and hawed for a long time before finally saying “no”. And even after I said no, I was second guessing my response and feeling awful that I said no because technically I could have subbed. I just didn’t want to teach a double on Wednesday and a double on Thursday. I didn’t want to.

And you know what? It all worked out OK. I’m not doomed with automatic bad karma or getting a bad name at the gym because I said no. I doubt anyone is even thinking about it anymore. Big thanks to Athena for confirming that I did the right thing and even saying she was proud of me for saying no 🙂

So the point of this post is: it’s ok to say no, it’s ok to put yourself and your needs/wants in front of others, it’s ok to not do things because you feel like you have to, it’s ok to not do everything and to try to make everyone happy. It’s ok. (if I keep telling myself this, I’m hoping it will be easier to do these things!)

Questions for you: When’s the last time you said “no”? Are you someone who always tries to make everyone happy and put others’ needs in front of yours?

On a side note… I said no 2 times on Wednesday; apparently I was on a roll! It was 7:10 and my class was 20 minutes from being over and a girl walks in, puts her stuff down and starts to get her weights, without so much of blinking an eye to the fact everyone was sweaty and looking like they were quite far into the workout. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: “oh, I’m sorry, Zumba starts at 7:30.”

Her: “I know, it’s ok I’ll just join this class”.

Me: “Well the workout is more than half done and you’re not warmed up so it would not be very safe for you to join now”.

Her: “I ran here. I’m 9 minutes late, I can’t believe you won’t let me join.”

Me (as nicely as I could): “Actually the class started at 6:30 so you’re almost 40 minutes late and we are on the last bit of class, so it’s really not safe for you to join. I’m sorry.”

Girl storms out. Fitness instructors, what would you have done? I just wouldn’t feel comfortable having her join the class 40 minutes late! Not to mention it was an incredibly distracting 3 minutes for the class and for me.