#Motivating others

[7wallpapers]

Monday motivation

All credits to the artist.

Like or reblog if you like :]

[vampiregal7]

[yrcanisrunsfromzombies]

Hi All! I’m back! Older and wiser!

It’s been 10 years since I’ve written on this thing and believe you me, my fitness journey has been that: A Journey. If you haven’t been with me for 10 years ago…welcome to my fitness blog!

So many ups and downs in not just my weight, but my emotions. 10 years ago, I was 24 living at home in New Jersey working in New York. Now I’m 34 living in Los Angeles. I moved out here 6.5 years ago to work as a makeup artist on set and it’s been a blessing and a struggle. I’ve grown a lot in 10 years as one should. Although I have worked on fitness sets, short films and clients, I’ve tried to balance these things with self-care (fitness & rest) and work always won… with 3 jobs then and now… it’s been exhausting. Let’s catch up friends.

When it comes to fitness, I’ve had a friend who said, ‘ if you are not working out, you are not happy.’ And even though he only knew me for a short time, he was absolutely correct. I lost sight of that in the hustle of the first 2 years here in LA. I’ve done little things I used to do in my 20s, like pole dancing and going to the gym (I had no idea what I was doing and…) finances ultimately were a struggle. However, I’m proud of the process and progress. I went from sharing a studio, to sharing a one bedroom, to having my own room in a 2bd 1b, to my own room and bathroom in a 2 bd 2b, to ultimately having my own studio with my own little fur baby, Emilio.

The first 2 years were hard and my weight increased and health declined. I ate terribly, was depressed (it still comes in waves), stressed and exhausted. It was 2018, I weighed the most I’ve ever weighed at the time (148 lbs!) AND I was turning 30. I realized I had to make a change when I tried on my bridesmaid’s dress for my sister’s wedding and the chronic splitting of jeans (2 to be exact)😂. It had to be drastic and an investment. My friend, Dana, recommended a gym. When I went in for a trial, I didn’t realize it was a CrossFit gym… oh boy. My goal: fit in the bridesmaid dress and not have my chichos (Dominican for fat rolls) show in my dress.

I began March 2018 and the wedding was in November 2018. So I had 7 months to fit into the dress, totally doable. I made little rules for myself. Go to the 30 min class early in the am before work 3 times a week. Drink your protein shake, swap out things in your diet like whole grain instead of bread, no cheese, meal prep veggie burger/sandwiches. I lost 10-11 lbs by July! I didn’t try the dress on until then and it fit almost perfectly! I began to plateau at 137 lbs and my coach, graduated me to the weightlifting class. He also recommend I do the fitness/diet challenge October 2018. The wedding was one month away! I will be the first to admit, I wasn’t the healthiest in those 5-6 weeks. I lost 8 lbs the first week (detox week) was almost at a faint until they said I can eat goat cheese. Goat cheese to me was what spinach is to Popeye. I regained energy. I skipped meals, drank a lot water, worked out 3 days a week… did all the things (I don’t recommend all of it). I fit in my dress for my sisters wedding and weighed 127lbs!(Really wish I took photos of my progress, but I was embarrassed, however in the pics below I can see a difference in 5 months)

May 2018

Nov 2018 (wedding)

Fitness, career and private life was on the up and up. When you feel good, your good energy becomes contagious. I met a boy on the plane to the wedding (I know a disgustingly cute meet-cute)and we dated for a year and a 2 months. During that time, I kinda strayed away from being consistent, went on birth control and ate terribly. I gain all the weight back and then some to 152lbs! This was my most heavy. I broke up with him, feeling sad and feeling like I lost myself in the relationship. I wasn’t happy and it was mostly me. I can admit that. The first week we broke up, I lost 8 lbs. I was angry running and angry boxing because I was sad and mad. Understandably.

Shortly after, I began to date a boy from CrossFit. Finally, someone who had things in common fitness-wise. We can do this together! The pandemic happened a month after dating and we did fitness things together: hiking and running. I fit in writing, painting, dieting and keeping a consistent little workout routine with fitness apps that came out at the time. I got down to 142 lbs. Ultimately, the pandemic emotionally brought us down and after dating for a year and 2 months, I called it quits. We weren’t growing in love and happiness. It was hard. Was the pandemic a factor? A small one. Before we broke up in April 2021, we signed up to do a Spartan Race together in October. We remained friends so we can do it together. He also had to make me sign up because I combated making the point that I always hurt myself doing obstacle 5Ks. None the less, I signed up and vowed to get to work.

That single summer before turning 33, I hiked, ran 5K sand did some weight lifting. I didn’t know exactly how to train for a Spartan Race. So when we did do the race in Big Bear, CA, I fell off the monkey bars hurting my right shoulder and the ground fracturing my right scapula! I was not prepared at all, however, I finished the race in pain without completing the obstacles. It was the next day when I went to urgentcare where I found out I fractured this big ass bone.

So that was October 2021, I told myself once I heal and I get the green light from my doctor. I’m going to be stronger than I ever was! At this time, I began working Front Desk at a spa, couldn’t freelance doing makeup with a broken wing. Luckily, they were caring and understanding. Massages and spa amenities were a big part in my recovery!

If you’ve stayed with me this far, I salut you and I’m almost caught up. Promise!

I worked so hard in 2022 to build the strength back in my shoulder and in my legs. I ran the fasted 5K in May 2022 (28 mins) then shifted my focus to weight lifting. The rules for my successful consistency will written on a different post as I plan to be more consistent than my younger self!😝

My goal was to build strength and get back on the mountain to snowboard. I hadn’t done it since before I moved to LA. Again, finances were a part of the delay. The hard work paid off when I got to go in January 2023! Such a great time, I didn’t hurt myself and my legs did have the stamina! I’m was so proud and happy. I finally felt like myself!

We are almost all caught up, but I will stop here. I’m writing this because fitness and health is truly an up and down journey especially for the working class. Some people don’t make self care and fitness a priority for them due to becoming parents, focusing on careers and not being able to financial invest in it. Because this is important to me I wanted to share, and clearly, a lot has happened.

I will post my workouts, my progress and my tips. I’m clearly not an expert, except an expert on struggling with consistency. I’m sure you on some level can relate.

I haven’t updated you from Jan 2023 until now (May 2023)… something big happened to me that caused me to reanimated this journey. I just wanted to use this post as a starting point and hopefully you all enjoyed it!

Keep your head up, darlings! Talk to you soon😘

[xerxeslogikosteam]

[crashstanding]

Reblog to give the person you reblogged from the ability to finish their WIPs

[drdisasterarts]

stardust to stardust // inspiration -> "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt

edit: reblogs r appreciated plsplspls😖💕‼️

[megatronusprimedecal]

"Always got your back." "No matter what."

Transformers One (2024)

[learnelle]

I went to my favourite Portuguese cafe to plan out the next uni semester. Every academic year I yearn for the summer, and every summer I sit in excitement to start studying again lol ☕️

[motion90affect]

Wanna eclipse any doubt you have, need to reshape your mindset, wanna continue to strengthen it, this emblematic design is a good place to start. Link ⬇️

RISE UP

[thehauntedmarionnette]

He is fighting a war. Just got his arms back. Has been fighting for his life so intensely that even we as the audience are unaware of the passage of time. And still has time to fanboy.

[kittyprincessofcats]

ICJ Ruling

Okay, let's get into this.

First of all, I get the frustration at the court not ordering a ceasefire. I was disappointed and frustrated at first too, since a ceasefire was the biggest and most important preliminary measure South Africa was requesting - and of course we just all want this horror to finally end for the people in Gaza. So I get the frustration and disappointment, I really do.

However, I do think this ruling is still a major win for South Africa, Palestine, and international law as a whole and here's why:

The court acknowledged that it has jurisdiction over this case and completely dismissed Israel's request to throw out the case as a whole. It will now determine at the merits stage (that will probably take years) whether Israel is actually commiting genocide.

The court acknowledged that Palestinians are a "distinct national or ethnic group and therefore deserving of protection under the genocide convention". Pull this out next time someone tells you "there's no such thing as Palestinians, they're all just Arabs".

The court acknowledged very unambiguously that "at least some" of Israel's actions being genocidal in nature is "plausible". South Africa has a case, officially. Israel is accused of genocide, in a way the ICJ deems "plausible", officially. This is huge. (And seriously, how freaking satisfying was it to hear all of those genocidal statements by Israeli politicians read out loud and used as justification for this rulling?)

The court might not have ordered a "ceasefire" in those words, but they did order Israel to "immediately end all genocidal acts" (which includes killing and injuring Palestinians) and submit proof that they actually did. How are they going to comply with this ruling without at least severly reducing or changing what they're doing in Gaza?

In fact, this wording might actually be more appropriate for a genocide (vs a war), as author and journalist Ali Abunimah notes on Twitter:

He's completely right. Israel lost today, by overwhelming majority (I mean, 15 to 2? I heard people predict the rulings would be very close, like 9 judges vs 8, but instead we got 15 to 2 (and even 16 to 1 on the humanitarian aid). Holy shit.) The court disimissed almost everything Israel's side of lawyers said, while acknowledging that South Africa's accusations are "plausible".

And this is important especially because of Mr Abunimah's second tweet there^. Because the question is, where do we go from here?

This ruling means that Israel is officially /possibly/ commiting genocide and that should have huge international consequences. The rest of the world now HAS to take these accusations seriously and stop arming and supporting Israel - and if they won't do it on their own, we, the people, have to make them. This is THE moment to rise up all around the world, especially in the countries most supportive of Israel (the US, the UK, Germany): Protest, call your representatives and demand a ceasefire and an end of arms deliveries to Israel.

We now have a legal case to back our demands: If Israel is, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" commiting genocide, then all of our governments are, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" guiltly of aiding in genocide. And we need to hold that over their heads and demand better. We need to do that right now and in huge numbers. Most politicians only care about themselves and saving their skin. We have to make them realize that they could be accused of aiding in genocide.

(As a German, I'm thinking of Germany here in particular: After South Africa's hearing, our government dismissed their case as having "no basis" - how are they going to keep saying that now that the ICJ officially thinks otherwise? Over the last months, people here have been arrested at protests for calling what's happening in Gaza a genocide. How are the police supposed to legally keep doing that now that the ICJ has officially deemed this accusation "plausible"? I used to be scared to use the word "genocide" at protests or write it on my protest signs - not anymore, have fun trying to arrest me for that when the ICJ literally has my back on this one 🖕🏻.)

So yeah - don't be defeatist about this, don't let Israel's narrative that they "won" (they didn't) take over. This might not be everything we wanted, but it's still a good result. Don't let what the court didn't say ("ceasefire"), distract you from the very important things that they did say. Let this be your motivation to get loud and active, especially if you live in any country that supports Israel. Put pressure on your governments to not be complicit in genocide, you now officially have the highest international court on your side.

[nocontext4077th]

[vampiregal7]

[charlesoberonn]

The "No True Scotsman" fallacy should be renamed to the "No True Christian" fallacy based on how often I see Christians (both progressive Christians and conservative/evangelical Christians) use it to claim other Christians shouldn't count because they're doing Christianity wrong.

[xerxeslogikosteam]