Triple L Life

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Music Notes

I don't know if you've noticed but I really have a thing for music. I know what you're thinking "What!?!?! I would never have guessed!!! You only post about music like every other second, which would never EVER have tipped us off that you like music." To which I reply "I know.....shocking."

When life REALLY sucks (for instance: right now) music allows me to channel all of my sad/depressing/ugly emotions into something beautiful. My emotions somehow fuel my confidence allowing me to sing loud and proud. Producing a beautiful sound then allows me to feel better about life thus making my life suck a little less. I can find a song for just about every situation life throws at me that allows me to express my feelings, process them, and start moving on.

It keeps me motivated when I'm running by allowing me to escape to some my world of pain for a while and connect to the music with my pace. In the same way, when riding, music allows me to connect to the movements of my horse as well as control our speed.

Life also allows me to just lose myself, jam out, and have an awesome time dancing around like an idiot to embarrassing songs that I love (see older post "Songs that..."). I may look ridiculous, but I feel great.

In short music is part of who I am and I hope I never lose that part of me.

If I had to pick one song to describe me I would pick...

Monday, April 9, 2012

That Darn Diet

Broke my diet for the weekend and now I'm feeling sickly proving that the diet works and nagging at me to get back on it :p So it's going to become a staple for me - minimal grains (I'm not going to kill myself to avoid them but I'm not going to kill myself by eating them either). I also kinda maybe might have been somewhat eating my feelings this weekend as well so I ate a lot. Paying for it now though.

Anywhosies, my new review of this diet:
It still gets boring and frustrating but it's not worth it to feed yourself crap that makes you feel tired and glubby. Thus I recommend this diet to anyone and everyone who wants to look and feel better. Oh and ladies, the first thing you'll notice when you eat this way is your stomach sucking in (flat. belly.) ;)

Diet Suggestions:

Start slow if you've never been on a restricted diet before.

Week one: no rice, week 2: no rice or beans, week: 3 no rice, beans, or corn, etc.
This should make it somewhat less shocking to you as to what you can and can't eat.

Reward yourself with a non-food thing every week you stick to the diet as well.

This will give you something to look forward to and (hopefully) motivate you to stick to your diet.

Enjoy the big holidays (just realize you will probably regret it)

Don't kill yourself trying to stick to the diet when you're at a party (this does NOT mean binge on anything you want)
If you feel badly afterwards it should just cement your resolve to stick with the diet

Be strict for the first 6 weeks so you really reap the rewards

Seriously.

After the first 6 weeks make it what you want

Ex. I'm adding quinoa to my diet as well as the occasional aged cheese, when I eat Mexican I will be eating chips and salsa, when we go somewhere with gluten free bread options I will indulge every once in a while but I will NOT be buying these items (all the time) to have at home

"I Lift My Hands"

This is an AMAZING song!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Bluebird

Pets are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. We tell them our innermost thoughts and deepest secrets. They always seem to know how to comfort us when we're down and how to make us smile even when we're not down. They are our closest companions and oldest friends. No matter how long they are in your life they make a difference because they manage to find a way into our hearts. This is why it is such an agonizing experience when we lose them, they're our kids.

Last night the bird I've had for nine years past away. He's been around for almost half of my life and now there's just a miserable hole where he was. I don't remember what it's like not to have a pet in the house and it seems deafeningly quiet without his constant chatter. It's horrible and I don't understand why he had to die this weekend of all weekends or why God makes their lives so short and ours so long. A really good friend shared with me that she believes God made it this way so that we could spend time with more of them. It's a special kind of pain when they die though, it comes with it's own wound which takes what seems like forever to heal. But we do heal and we do let new animals into our hearts and we are happy again. We are offered another beginning but we never forget our last beginning's end.

In Loving Memory of Orville!

Beliefs

While we're on the subject of not apologizing for who we are and just being ourselves I am going to apologetically share my beliefs with whoever occasionally peruses this blog. I am a Lutheran Christian and a broken person; these are my beliefs:

I don't claim to be better than anyone else, I sin just like everyone else. I do not see it as my place or the church's place to judge people for who they are, what they've done, or how they live (John 8:7). How can we judge someone for their sins when we have sinned in equal measure? Answer: we can't, only God is without sin so only He can judge. It's like the song "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi, God's message is a message of love, it's only when humans think that their job as Christians is to make sinners repent that this message becomes warped. Our job is to spread God's message of love to others so that they might know Jesus' love as well. We are ALL God's children and He loves each of us as such. He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to be tortured and murdered in order to wipe clean OUR sins. Had He not done this we would all be going to hell after death because there is NOTHING we can do to make up for our sins. Only by falling on Jesus sinlessness and crucifixion can we rise to eternal life in heaven. What's awesome about this is that it DOESN'T matter what we've done, how we've lived, the countless sins we've committed, none of it matters because Jesus died for each and every one of us. We are all saved, we have all been rescued, we are free from sin.

These are a few songs that really spoke to me about faith and God's love:

Happy Easter! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

YOU ARE LOVED!!! NOTHING can separate you from that LOVE!!

Friday, April 6, 2012

The Best Thing You Have to Offer the World is That There's Only One of YOU

Girls are probably the most competitive beings on the planet. Why are we this way? Because this is how we've been conditioned to act by the media, by school, by work, by our very culture. We have been trained to judge each other first because we are often insecure with our own bodies/personalities/everything else. This insecurity then causes us to strive to be someone we're not (be it in looks, popularity, athleticism, what-have-you) and we compare ourselves to others. When we see a girl who we think is better than us in some way our immediate reaction is to consider her a threat and become offended by her (she could be the coolest, nicest, weirdest person in the world but we immediately write her off because we think she outshines us somehow and therefore don't want to be around her. This reaction causes us to be petty, judgy, little people who no one likes.

A few of the stupid things we do:

Try to outdo each other with stories

Ex. "One time I was driving and I almost hit a deer" "One time I was driving, I did hit a deer but didn't kill it I put it in the bed of my pick-up and rushed it to the nearest hospital where a surgeon saved it's life." "You got that from Grey's Anatomy didn't you?" "Pfff what!?!? no."

Immediately try to find faults in other girls to make ourselves feel better

That girl's thighs touch
She laughs weird
What is with her hair
She can't sing
Et cetera

Hide our true personalities

We all try to be the same because we want to fit in

Set impossible goals for ourselves

Ex. By next week I will have grown 4 inches, lost 20 pounds, be able to sing like Kelly Clarkson, and dance like Cheryl Burke
Ex. I will maintain straight A's throughout my entire college career

Hold grudges

Ex. The other day, Becky criticized my paper I'm going to hate her fo. ev. a!

Over-analyze EVERYTHING

Your boyfriend is being super quiet and acts kinda mad

You think: "What did I do to make him so mad and why won't he talk about it!?!?"
Reality: He got pooped on by a bird

Act like we're all enemies

All of this could be prevented if we would just accept ourselves for who we are and stop COMPARING ourselves to other people. This is way easier said than done because everything in our lives up to this point have been conditioning us to do otherwise. It is not easy to uncondition someone (just read the third Hunger Games book). If we can just be ourselves and stop being threatened by other girls we can all stop trying to beat each other out. We don't actually have to compete with each other, we can be friends, we just need to stop trying to outdo each other.

Here's my challenge to you this week/month/year/day/next 30 minutes/whatever:
For the next predetermined amount of time, STOP being self-conscious and just try to have fun with life, DON'T compare yourself to anyone (because it is physically impossible for you to become them), COMPLIMENT a complete stranger (or someone you don't think you like but have never actually gotten to know), BE yourself without remorse, and stop putting so much pressure on yourself to be perfect, you're human, you will make mistakes but life is too damn short to be worried about what you will do, try to live in the here and now.

Now go do it! Happy weekend!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

She Sprikens the Truth

I (like the general population) waste a LOT of time on the internet. That amount of time went drastically up after I discovered the Jenna Marbles (Mourey). Her videos are hilarious to stay the least (it's-funny-cuz-it's-true type of funny). Despite their hilarity there is some major truth in them (truth that sometimes you don't want to hear). She puts out videos every Wednesday and today's video was about diets (which I just found laughably ironic) so I was then inspired to post some of my favorite Jenna Marble videos.

*Disclaimer #1 - these videos are highly addictive, do not view if you are attempting to write a paper or study for an impending test*

*Disclaimer #2 - she swears.....a lot, don't watch if it offends you*

What Girls do in the Car

How to Get Ready for a Date - oh sarcasm

How to Talk to Animals

What Caffeine Does

How to Avoid People You Don't Want to Talk to

How Girls Watch TV

How a Diet Works

So you are now either addicted, nodding your head and going "oh yeah, these are my favorites too, this blog-writer-person has good taste," or disgusted, but I don't really care because these they make me laugh when I'm having a bad day so that's really all I care about.

Enjoy! :)

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Time to go shopping for a nice sports bra!

What is it?
The Sports Bra Challenge is a day-long charity fitness centered around women working out in a series of group fitness classes in their sports bras. Come out to support and empower one another to feel comfortable in our bodies – exactly as we are. Get in on this epic celebration of our bodies and support S.E.A.K. Foundation and City of Hope’s Positive Image Center, which helps cancer patients regain and retain confidence in how they look while undergoing treatment. - S.E.A.K. Foundation

So this is something I am very excited for because body image is something I struggle with every day (as do billions of other women). I am an avid fan of The Biggest Loser on NBC (even though it's not as good without Jillian but I digress) and 2 of the 3 ladies in the following video are the winner and runner up of season 11 (their blog <= Check it out!). They are my inspiration for getting healthy(er), and I think this is an excellent cause so I will definitely be participating in some way (it would be FANTASTIC if I could actually get to New York, but that's doubtful so I'll prolly just walk around in a sports bra all day) and I hope others will join me.

More information about S.E.A.K.

I think this picture is AWESOME!

"We believe that once you let go of the insecurities that hold you back, both physically and mentally, you can achieve anything."