Monthly Archives: January 2024

A Social Weekend (or Spending Time With Friends)

Posted on January 31, 2024 | Comments Off on A Social Weekend (or Spending Time With Friends)

I’ve said many times that I need to work on being more social and leaving my house. And I finally had a nice and social weekend this past weekend. I didn’t plan to have back-to-back friend hangouts, but having a few opportunities to see friends and not be as isolated at home after work was nice.

I had my traditional cheesecake hangout on Friday with my birthday twin, Joanna. It was a bit later in the month than we normally do (in the past, we had it much closer to New Year’s), but we also had to coordinate when it would work for both of our schedules. And it might have worked out nicely to go later in January because when we got there we didn’t have to wait for a table! We’ve had times in the past when we’ve had to wait an hour or two, but this was the first time I remember that we could be seated right away.

And we had our usual hangout that we get to do twice a year. We caught up on each other’s news and the craziness of life. I got to tell her about finding a new agent and the new headshots that I took recently. She was telling me about the trip that she was planning with her boyfriend. We both talked about random industry news that we’ve been hearing since the strike ended. It was a really nice and chill dinner and that’s exactly what I want these hangouts to be. And of course, we got cheesecake to share between us. It was an indulgent meal, but totally worth it and something I had been looking forward to all month.

Then the next day, my friend Robert and his boyfriend had a party to celebrate their new apartment. They just moved in together into a really great new place. I had been helping Robert look for apartments when they were searching and sent him so many links to different places. But this place is the perfect one for them. It doesn’t have as much square footage as they were originally looking for, but the layout makes it feel so much bigger. The apartment is brand new with great appliances and a washer and dryer, so I think those are better things to have than more space. And I learned from my last place that the technical square footage doesn’t necessarily represent how big or small a space feels. Nobody seemed to believe me when they found out my last place was only about 400 square feet because the layout and how I put my furniture made it feel much bigger.

I had only seen photos and videos of their new apartment, so I was excited to see it in person. And it was a nice party too. A lot of people who were there were people I knew, so I didn’t feel like I was surrounded by strangers. But there were also some new people I got to meet. But all of us just hung out and had a nice time talking about all the randomness of life. It was very chill and low-pressure, which is exactly how I like parties to be. I am an extrovert, but also a bit of an introvert when things get too overwhelming. But I never felt that way at this party so that was perfect.

I did have a bit of an extrovert hangover the next morning, which is probably something I should have expected since I don’t usually have social events 2 days in a row. I know I used to live life like that, but I’m out of practice. In a perfect world, I think I would have one party or friend hang out a week just so I could be more social. But it’s ok when they are back-to-back every so often since I really don’t get to do these that often.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailSocial Days Off (or Finally Seeing Some Friends) Default ThumbnailMore Friends More Fun (or Still Building My Social Circle) Default ThumbnailBeing Social Outside Of Workouts (or Making OTF Friends) Default ThumbnailFitting In Social Time (or Taking Advantage Of My Weekends) Default ThumbnailAnother Union Holiday Celebration (or Being Social And Working Social Media) Default ThumbnailStill Not Feeling Like We Are Post-Pandemic (or Continuing To Struggle Being Social)

Comments Off on A Social Weekend (or Spending Time With Friends)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged ,

Another Hard Week With A Challenge (or Hoping For A Better Week This Week)

Posted on January 29, 2024 | Comments Off on Another Hard Week With A Challenge (or Hoping For A Better Week This Week)

I had another really tough week this past week in my workouts. I was expecting this and I was mentally prepared for it. But no matter how mentally prepared I am, I always struggle when I’m in the workouts. I want to push myself to do better than I am, and I know that doing that can cause issues. But I still have a stubbornness that makes me want to always do better. And that feeling is even stronger when we have a challenge within the workout.

This past week, we had the mile benchmark. This has been a benchmark that I’ve really enjoyed challenging myself with and I’ve been able to surprise myself with how well I could do. But when we had the benchmark this past week, I knew it wasn’t going to be my best time. I honestly went into it thinking that I wasn’t going to try to push myself too hard because my pain and nausea were really bad that morning. I set the resistance level on the bike to be what I normally do the benchmark at and I had a goal to try to do it with as few breaks as possible. But I also knew that if I got to the point that I needed to leave class to be sick, then I would have to do that. Staying in the workout when I feel like that isn’t worth the risk. When I finished the benchmark, it wasn’t that close to my PR, which is what I expected. But I also didn’t do as badly as I expected, so that made me happy.

We are going to have the mile benchmark again in about 2 months because right now, Orangetheory is doing the Transformation Challenge. I’m not participating in the Transformation Challenge this year due to various health things I’ve been dealing with and I didn’t need to worry about what may or may not happen in my workouts. But I do like that we started the 8 weeks of the challenge with a benchmark and we will be doing it again at the end. I’m just hoping that when we have it again, I’ll be having a much better day.

The rest of my workout week this past week was a big struggle. I did my best, but I got very frustrated with what my best ended up being. I was lucky that my nausea wasn’t that bad for most of the week. I was worried it would be horrible for the entire week, but it really only affected me on Monday when we had the benchmark. And I think I didn’t have the added nausea from my medication, which was a win. But the pain and cramps I had throughout the week made things really difficult for me. I was worried about lifting heavy weights because if a cramp hit me, I wanted to be able to put the weights down quickly without worrying about hurting myself. I also had to take a lot of breaks in all sections of the room when the pain hit because sometimes it’s a very sharp pain. When I had to stop my workout on the floor, I tried to use that time to stretch a bit so I would still be moving. But I know stretching isn’t the same as weightlifting so I wasn’t getting exactly the same workout. But at least I was still moving a bit and that’s better than just sitting or standing still.

This week, I’m hoping it will be a better week. I had 2 really bad weeks back to back and this week shouldn’t be as horrible. But it also depends on how my medication affects me this week since that can make any week a bad week. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I finally get a bit of a break and I can fully enjoy my workouts again!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailGetting Through Another Bad Week (or Being Ok With Not Pushing Myself) Default ThumbnailAnother Hard Workout Week (or A Repeat Of The Last Week In More Ways Than One) Default ThumbnailGetting Through A Tough Week (or Rain And Pain) Default ThumbnailI Hate Having A Hard Workout Week (or Not My Usual Workout Recap) Default ThumbnailFinishing Up The Last Workout Challenge of 2023 (or Working Around New Issues Again) Default ThumbnailMy Own Type Of Hell Week (or Working Through Some Tough Workouts)

Comments Off on Another Hard Week With A Challenge (or Hoping For A Better Week This Week)

Posted in Fitness

Tagged , ,

Feeling Like Things Are Picking Up (or I’ve Missed This Productivity)

Posted on January 24, 2024 | Comments Off on Feeling Like Things Are Picking Up (or I’ve Missed This Productivity)

When I worked at getting as ready as possible with things for my acting career, I knew that a lot of it was out of my hands. I took control of whatever I could, but there’s only so much I can do. I got a new agent, which was huge and the biggest thing I was worried about. And after that, I could start the ball rolling on a few other things that I was putting off.

I got new headshots done, which I had been putting off for a while. I would love to have my weight lower before taking photos, but I need something for now. And I was lucky that I got to work with someone I have known for a while and he was able to give me a good deal so the new photos weren’t quite as much as they could have been. It’s always fun getting to work with a new photographer because every photographer has their methods for helping you get the best shots possible. I think the photos I got in this shoot came out so good and I’ve already gotten the selects back from my new agent so I can get them posted on the different casting sites as soon as I get the retouched images back. Having new and fresh photos should be helpful, plus I feel like these have a bit more personality than the ones I’ve had up for a while. I can’t guarantee that I will get a ton of auditions because of the new photos, but I feel really good about how these represent me and the characters that I might be cast as.

But even before my new photos got onto the casting sites, I had my first audition through my new agent! It’s been a while since I’ve had an audition. Between the strike and then having my last agent close their agency, there weren’t many opportunities for me. I was still doing submissions on my own, but those are much more limited than what an agent sees. I was thrilled to get the email about the audition and was ready to get back into the swing of things.

This audition was a bit different from many that I’ve had. Before the pandemic, most of my auditions were in-person. Since the pandemic, all my auditions have been self-tapes. But this audition was on Zoom, so it was a mix of what I’m used to. I was able to audition from home so I could be comfortable, but I had casting watching me as I performed. I do prefer having casting watching me so I can make adjustments as needed, so I was excited to do a Zoom audition. But I did discover while getting everything set up that I don’t have the best set-up for a Zoom audition. I have a tripod for my phone to do self-tapes, but I didn’t have a stand for my laptop since I knew it would be better to use that for Zoom. But I was able to make things work with a big stack of books and using my desktop ring lamp.

I am looking at finding a stand for my laptop to add to my home audition equipment just so I have something ready if I need it. It also might be a good thing to have for self-tape auditions if I have a reader over Zoom instead of in person. But I wasn’t going to buy a bunch of stuff right away, so I made it work with what I had.

I felt so good after this audition. I have no idea if I will book the part or not, but it felt so good to perform. I know some people, including myself, question from time to time if this is still the career we want to pursue. I know my life would probably be a lot easier if I didn’t want to be an actor. But every audition and chance to perform proves to me that this is what makes me happy and this career is what I want to do if I’m lucky enough to have that opportunity. I also loved feeling like I was actually doing something for my career and not just waiting for things to happen. I obviously will have to wait for the next audition to come, but I know that I have been doing the work that got me ready for this audition and will have me ready when the next one comes my way.

I really hope that with all these things I’ve been doing recently, things will get busier for me. I know I might get stressed out with having to balance everything, but it will also be worth it because I know how much happier I was in general after my audition. I crave performing and I know that getting to do it feeds my soul. And I just want to have more chances to have that feeling because I know how awesome it is!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailSome Friend and Acting Time (or Still Helping With Self-Tapes) Default ThumbnailAn Isolation Audition (or Working On My Self-Tape Game) Default ThumbnailAlmost Getting To Act (or Being On The Other Side Of A Self-Tape Audition) Default ThumbnailAnother Self-Tape Audition (or So Grateful For Anything Related To Acting Right Now) Default ThumbnailMaking My Acting Bold (or Feeling Great From An Audition) Default ThumbnailAudition Prep (or Taking My Career Seriously)

Comments Off on Feeling Like Things Are Picking Up (or I’ve Missed This Productivity)

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged , ,

Getting Through Another Bad Week (or Being Ok With Not Pushing Myself)

Posted on January 22, 2024 | Comments Off on Getting Through Another Bad Week (or Being Ok With Not Pushing Myself)

I was prepared for this past week of workouts to be a bit of a bad week, and I was right. I was hoping that I would have at least one good day since Mondays tend to be ok for me, but I really struggled every day. With the nausea I deal with every week, Mondays are the day I don’t usually have it since I do my shot after my workout. But since this past week was also my other type of nausea, it doesn’t follow the pattern that I deal with each week. I still felt better on Monday than I did the rest of the week, but it wasn’t that great of a day for me.

But I am grateful that my workout coaches all know me well enough to understand that when I’m having a bad week, I just have to do what I can. They don’t push my to do more even when they know I probably could do more. When I have to leave the room to be sick, they will check in with me when I come back but they don’t make a big deal about it and just let me continue with what I can do. I’m so lucky that I’m able to have coaches like this. I can’t imagine what it would be like if they made me feel bad about showing up when I can’t do my best. I probably wouldn’t continue with my workouts if that was the case. It’s the same way they handle my hip issues when I’m in pain, and I’ve experienced other workout places where they tried to make my pain a big deal and it really ruined the workout for me. Of course, I wish I didn’t have to deal with any of this, especially since it’s a very regular occurrence. But I also know that I’m in the best situation that I can be for my workouts.

Even with my gratitude for my coaches, it doesn’t make the workouts any easier when I’m having a bad week. And when I’m feeling as nauseous as I did this past week, it’s a fine balance between just doing what I can do and testing my limits. And I had a real challenge with that this past week because one of our workouts was a signature workout. We had Inferno, which is a workout I’ve done a few times before. It’s always a good challenge to do, but when I’m dealing with nausea, it’s almost impossible for me to do what we have to do. The main part of the workout involves getting on and off the rower and doing hops between each row. Getting on and off the rower is hard for me with my hips even on my best days. But doing that plus hopping is impossible when I’m nauseous. As much as I wanted to challenge myself and see how far I could get on the rower, I knew it wouldn’t be a good choice for me to make. So I had to accept that I just couldn’t do it. During the row block, I just rowed as much as I could and then rested when I needed to do so. Since I wasn’t doing the challenge the correct way, I didn’t put my distance in the tracker and I didn’t compare it to how I did with Inferno in the past.

This week, it’s very possible it’s going to be another really bad week for me. I never know in advance with either type of nausea that I have, so maybe I’ll be surprised and it won’t be as bad. And sometimes, when the week before is really horrible for me, the next week isn’t as extreme. But I’m mentally preparing myself for another struggle in my workouts and just doing what I’m able to do. And I’m not going to feel guilty about not having my best week or having to modify things so that I can get through the workout.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailGetting Through My Bad Week (or Doing Some Solo Challenges) Default ThumbnailThe Beginning Of A Bad Workout Week (or Just Pushing Along As Always) Default ThumbnailA Mixed Workout Week (or Preparing To Have A Bad Week Again) Default ThumbnailSurviving My Workout Week (or I Knew It Would Be Bad, But Not This Bad) Default ThumbnailMy Normal Bad Workout Week (or At Least This Is What I’m Used To) Default ThumbnailAlmost Having A Second Hell Week (or Just Pushing Through)

Comments Off on Getting Through Another Bad Week (or Being Ok With Not Pushing Myself)

Posted in Fitness

Tagged , ,

Dinner And A Show (or Back To Seeing Musicals)

Posted on January 17, 2024 | Comments Off on Dinner And A Show (or Back To Seeing Musicals)

When the last season of musicals ended, it felt like it would take so long before the next season would start. But as I’ve said before, time has flown by and it was the new year before we knew it! This current season of musicals is pretty much one show a month through the summer, so I’m really excited about having a lot of fun nights out for over half of the year! I don’t know when the season after this one will start, but maybe that will fill out the rest of the year for us!

And with the start of a new musical season, of course we had to go out for dinner before the show! I was so sad last year when I noticed that Wood & Vine had closed down because that was the perfect place to have dinner before the show. But I was thrilled to see that a new restaurant opened in that space. Now, it’s called RDen and there are a few people from Wood & Vine who are still there. And of course, that’s where we had to go for dinner.

The menu has a lot of new things on it, but there were also a lot of familiar favorites. And as always, the food was gorgeous and delicious!

It was the perfect way to start off the evening and felt like a return to something that makes me so happy! We were so full and stuffed by the time we walked across the street to the theater, but I’m so glad we are able to go back to our favorite spot for a pre-show dinner again.

With every season of musicals that I see, there are some shows I’m more excited about seeing than others. And the first one for this season was one I was a bit more hesitant about.

We saw “MJ The Musical”, which is about Michael Jackson’s life and features his music. I’m not really a Michael Jackson fan. I know he has some amazing songs and he did incredible things for the music industry, but he also was a very problematic person and I can’t ignore some of the things that people said he did. But I always try to go into a show with an open mindset and that’s what I did this time.

And I’m glad I kept an open mind because the show was really good. It didn’t cover a lot of the problems that he had and it did gloss over some things that maybe should have either been discussed or completely skipped over, but overall the show was so well done. And I loved how the show ended. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it was just really good and made me happy with how they were able to wrap everything up.

We also had a very unique experience at the show. Our season tickets this season are in the orchestra, and we don’t plan on moving seats around much if we can help it. But there was an issue with our seats for this show and it was very uncomfortable to be sitting where we were. So during the intermission, we went to the audience services booth to see if they could move us to different seats for the second act. I was joking to my friend that maybe we would be upgraded to better seats, but I expected to be seated in a similar level of seats as our season tickets. To my surprise, my joke came true and we got to watch the second act from the center of the orchestra only about 15 rows back! We could never afford these seats for our season tickets, but now we are tempted to do maybe one level above our current one when we renew our tickets for the next season. I almost hate how much nicer it was to watch the show from the center orchestra and be that close up, but it was a very nice and special treat for us to kick off this season.

As I said, we pretty much have a show every month for the next several months, so we’ll be back before we know it to continue this musical season. And I’m so excited to see the rest of the shows we have coming up, even if they are shows that I’m still a bit unsure of. I proved to myself with this one that I can be very pleasantly surprised and I hope that will happen again!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailKicking Off Another Season Of Musicals (or A Really Impressive Start To The Season) Default ThumbnailAnother Round Of A Repeat Musical (or Seeing A Show A Different Way) Default ThumbnailMore Musicals! (or Another Season At Pantages) Default ThumbnailAnd Another Season Of Musicals (or Continuing My LA Tradition) Default ThumbnailAnother Dinner And A Show Night (or Classic Musicals And Yummy Food) Default ThumbnailAll Set For Another Musical Season (or I’m Glad I Can Continue This)

Comments Off on Dinner And A Show (or Back To Seeing Musicals)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , ,

Still Working Out With Side Effects (or I’m Hoping This Will Be Better Soon)

Posted on January 15, 2024 | Comments Off on Still Working Out With Side Effects (or I’m Hoping This Will Be Better Soon)

The biggest struggle I had during this past week of workouts was the side effects I have been experiencing from increasing the dosage of my medication. Unfortunately, this past week was worse for me than the week before and I really had to work around feeling horrible. But as always, I tried my best and made the most of each workout I had.

My Monday workouts shouldn’t really be affected by the medication since I don’t take it until after my workout on Mondays. I know sometimes I might still be feeling it from the dosage the week before, but I’m expecting Mondays to not be too bad for me. And that’s how this past Monday went. Because I was expecting things to be this way, I tried to make the most of that workout since I wasn’t sure how the rest of the week would go for me. On Monday, the workout focus was all about doing push paces with a surge before returning to a base pace. I did my push pace resistance level during the surges but increased my pedaling speed to try to make things just a little harder for me. I did struggle a little during the row block since we were getting on and off the rower and that is always hard for my hips, but I did better than I have been doing recently and I was grateful that I was not taking too much time to do that.

The worst day of this past week was on Tuesday. I was feeling pretty horrible overnight the night before, but I was feeling much better by the morning so I thought maybe I was over the worst of it. Unfortunately, my nausea really hit me hard and I had to leave the workout multiple times to be sick in the bathroom. This is still a rare thing for me to experience, so I’m grateful for that. But because the nausea was so bad and it happened multiple times, it was a lot worse than I’ve experienced in class. And without being too gross, I had been sick enough that there wasn’t anything left in my stomach, so being sick was starting to be a bit more painful. I didn’t leave class early, but I really was struggling to keep going. Toward the end of class, I was really hesitant to do different exercises because I wasn’t sure what would trigger the nausea again and I was scared to be sick.

Wednesday was slightly better than Tuesday, but it was still not a great day. But I wanted to pull myself together for Thursday because we had a signature workout. This time, we had The Chipper. I’ve done this signature workout before, but the last time I did it was about a year and a half ago so it’s been a while. The idea of The Chipper is that you chip away at the workout as you go. For cardio, that means every push pace got 30 seconds shorter each time. For rowing, we had squat jumps and rowing and every interval got shorter and we had less time to get the work done. And on the floor, we had 7 main exercises and each one had 5 fewer reps than the one before. I was pretty happy with what I was able to do on the bike for the cardio block. For the rowing, I never really was able to finish all the work before the next interval started, but I think that had more to do with how long it takes me to do squats with calf raises compared to squat jumps. That little extra time adds up and I know I was always the last person to sit down on the rower. And on the floor, we were supposed to do an anchor exercise between each of the main exercises. The anchor exercise was doing front-to-back hops, and I just ended up skipping those because I knew I couldn’t do them. Because I skipped those exercises, I was able to get through all the other exercises in the floor block.

I’m hoping that this week of workouts will go a little better for me, but it’s impossible for me to know how my medication will affect me. Maybe I won’t have as extreme side effects or maybe it will be worse. I’m hoping that it will get better as my body gets used to the new dosage. I also have the possibility that I might be dealing with my monthly pain and nausea next week, so that could affect things. I’m really ready to have another good week of workouts and I’m worried that it might not happen for a little while. But all I can do is keep going and doing the best that I can each week. I know it’s better than doing nothing and eventually things will be better for me.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailWorking On Pushing Things (or Hoping I Am Stronger) Default ThumbnailMy Own Type Of Hell Week (or Working Through Some Tough Workouts) Default ThumbnailBack To My Normal Routine (or Working Through My Workouts) Default ThumbnailWorking On My Workout Goals (or Somehow The Workouts Were Exactly What I Needed) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready For The Dri-Tri (or Working My Way Through The Workouts) Default ThumbnailWorking Through A Rough Week (or Just Keep Moving)

Comments Off on Still Working Out With Side Effects (or I’m Hoping This Will Be Better Soon)

Posted in Fitness

Tagged , ,

Ending The Year With A Very Productive Challenge (or Starting Off 2024 With Another Repeat)

Posted on January 10, 2024 | 2 comments

My monthly challenge for December was one that I knew I needed to do. I wanted to get myself as ready as possible for 2024 with my acting career. This was something that had really taken a backseat in my life over the past few years. I was still pursuing acting, but I knew I wasn’t doing things the best way I could. Things haven’t been what we all considered normal for the industry between the pandemic and the strike. But that’s also just an excuse because things have been happening since the pandemic, and commercials weren’t affected during the strike so there was still a possibility for me to audition. However, I discovered that I no longer had an agent during the strike. That was the kick in the butt that I needed to get back in gear.

I knew I needed new headshots, but I wanted to see if I could get a new agent first since that agent would likely have an opinion on those headshots and I didn’t want to do a shoot only to need to do another one after that. It’s been over a decade since I’ve had to look for an agent, so I wasn’t sure how things worked now. So I decided to start with people I knew since that would be the easiest way to start and I would love to be represented by someone who really knows me and doesn’t just see me as another actor on their roster. My first submission was to someone I have known since I was in college. We did improv together when I was in my 20s so we’ve known each other for over 2 decades. She transitioned to being an agent and I knew that her agency represented actors both theatrically (for film and tv) and commercially. It seemed like it could be the ideal situation for me and I was hoping she would think the same. And fortunately, that’s exactly how she felt and I was signed to her agency when we met! I know I’m insanely lucky how easy it was for me to get a new agent and this isn’t how it is for most people. And I’m also grateful that I have stayed in touch with people I’ve been in classes with for this long so I would still have this connection.

Getting a new agent was a huge win for my challenge and technically that was the only thing I got done during December. I did shoot new headshots last week after discussing what looks my new agent wanted to see. That shoot was in January, but I think it still can count as a win for my December challenge since it only was delayed because of the holidays. And now, I feel like I’m really back to acting and I hope that the combination of the new agent and new headshots will result in some amazing auditions and some bookings!

I know that not all challenges can go as well as my December one did. I didn’t even expect it to go that well and was thinking I might still be submitting to agencies and trying to get meetings through the next month or two. But it was a great way to end 2023 and I’m hoping that my challenges in 2024 will be close to that successful.

For my first challenge of 2024, I’m doing a bit of a repeat again. But I’m modifying it so hopefully I can be a bit more successful at it. I’ve tried multiple times to create a budget for myself and get on top of my finances. I’m doing much better with it now than I did before, but I’m still not great at having a budget. So this month, my challenge is to find the parts of my life that I can create a budget for. I might not be able to budget for everything, but I can try to budget for certain categories so I can be more mindful of my spending. I think that creating a budget for meals (both groceries and going out) would be a smart one to have. Also, I’d like to have some sort of entertainment budget. I don’t go out that much right now, but budgeting to go out and do things would be smart as I try to be out and social more. I also want to look more carefully at regular or recurring expenses to make sure there aren’t things I don’t use anymore that I’m paying for.

Maybe by budgeting for a few categories, I can ease into creating a larger budget for myself. I have some unplanned expenses right now that I don’t have the funds for and I need to save up. Knowing where all my money is going will help me save for what I need to do now and what might come up in the future. I know that I don’t make a lot of money, but finding any extra money right now would be so helpful. I don’t expect everything to be perfect, but I’d like them to be better than they are now so I can continue to get things in order as I have more things in my life that cost me money.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailCleaning Up And Getting Ready (or Still More Prep For 2024) Default ThumbnailMy 2024 Goals (or Things Already Might Need To Change A Bit) Default ThumbnailFailing And Succeeding In One Monthly Challenge (or Another Repeat Challenge This Month) Default ThumbnailNew Year’s Workouts (or Ending 2016 and Starting 2017 With Orangetheory) Default ThumbnailAnother Monthly Challenge Down (or The Prosperous Heart) Default ThumbnailFirst Monthly Challenge Of The Year (or Setting Up For The Year And Self-Improvement)

2 Comments

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Saving

Tagged , , , ,

A New Year Of Workouts (or Another Short Workout Week)

Posted on January 8, 2024 | Comments Off on A New Year Of Workouts (or Another Short Workout Week)

After completing my goal of at least 200 workouts in 2023, I immediately started on my workout goals for 2024! I got in 3 workouts this past week, which isn’t necessarily my normal workout week, but it’s what worked best for me. I have my tradition of working out on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and because of the NYE workout, I only did 3 workouts for the first week of the year since I didn’t want to do 5 workouts in a week. I know I could have done it, but it didn’t feel right. I also worried about how I would feel this week, and I didn’t want to push it.

My New Year’s Day workout was a 2 group class since I didn’t go at my normal workout time. I thought maybe it would still be a 3 group class since the classes at the beginning of the year can be pretty full, but I think it was still a bit early for the crowd so it wasn’t a packed class. It’s always a nice change for me when I get a 2 group class in my schedule since I rarely take them. Typically, they only happen on holidays since I have that day off of work and don’t have to wake up as early to get to my workout. And I think it was a nice class to ease into the week with because it focused a lot on base pace so I wasn’t going too crazy. I also didn’t get that much sleep the night before since I was out, so even with sleeping in, I didn’t have as much sleep as I would have liked.

I wasn’t worried about how I was going to feel in Monday’s class, other than being tired. But I was worried about how I would feel on Tuesday and Wednesday. I increased my injectable medication this past week. This was the first increase I’ve had in over a year, and I know that every time I’ve increased it, the side effects got worse for a bit. I still have been having side effects at the old dosage, but they can vary from week to week. I think it just depends on the exact spot I do the injection. Sometimes I get it in the right spot and things aren’t as bad. But it’s hard for me to predict how I will feel. But I had a good idea that I would feel pretty off after the new dosage. I didn’t do my injection until after my Monday class since I wasn’t sure if I’d have an immediate reaction. And throughout the day on Monday, I was feeling some side effects. They weren’t as bad as they have been at times, but it was a weird queasy and uneasy feeling. I don’t know how to explain the different types of nausea I experience, but this was different from any other type I have dealt with. The only good thing was that I wasn’t getting physically ill on Monday, so I had high hopes about how I would feel in my workouts.

Unfortunately, something in my workouts must have triggered something in my system because on both days I had to leave class for a break to be sick in the bathroom. This is something that rarely happens to me, but it’s happened before and I know what I need to do so that I can be ok to be back in the workout. I’m sure it sounds crazy to come back to work out after being sick, but it’s something I’ve gotten used to from other nausea I experienced. If I know what exercise triggered it, I just make modifications so that I don’t have to go through that again. And I usually avoid exercises that have me in a plank or face down since I know those can make me feel really nauseous.

But even with being sick in both of my other workouts this past week, I feel really good about the workouts I did. I focused on what I could do without feeling worse and tried to go harder on those to make up for what I wasn’t able to do. I also was grateful that I wasn’t feeling worse because I have experienced much more extreme side effects in the past. I know that worse side effects can hit me any week and just because this past week wasn’t as bad as expected I’m in the clear. But it was nice that I was able to start 2024 with some good workouts, even if they weren’t the best that I could do.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailLast Full Workout Week Of The Year (or I’m Glad It Was A Good Week) Default ThumbnailA Short Workout Week (or 3 Workouts In 3 Different Locations) Default ThumbnailMy Short Workout Week (or 6 Years Of Family Workouts) Default ThumbnailA Short And Slightly Painful Workout Week (or Still Getting In My 3 Workouts) Default ThumbnailStruggling Sucks (or Thank Goodness It Was A Short Workout Week) Default ThumbnailJust A Bad Workout Week (or I Need To End The Year Better Than This)

Comments Off on A New Year Of Workouts (or Another Short Workout Week)

Posted in Fitness

Tagged , , ,

My 2024 Goals (or Things Already Might Need To Change A Bit)

Posted on January 3, 2024 | Comments Off on My 2024 Goals (or Things Already Might Need To Change A Bit)

Happy 2024! I hope everyone had an amazing New Year’s and the year has gotten off to a good start already. I had a pretty chill and low-key New Year’s (except for one thing) and that’s exactly how I like to do things. Before I went out to celebrate with friends, I set aside some time to work on my goals for 2024 and I came up with 4 that I really want to focus on for this year. But I might have to make a few modifications already.

My first goal for 2024 shouldn’t surprise anyone who has seen my goals over the past few years. I want to do at least 200 workouts this year. This is the same number I have had as my goal for a few years, and I don’t expect that I will ever change this since 4 workouts a week at Orangetheory feels right to me. I know I’ve had random weeks when I’ve done 5 workouts in a week, but I can’t imagine doing that regularly. I hope that I will do a few more than 200 this year, but this number allows me to have some missed classes if I get sick or something else prevents me from getting to a workout. But as long as I get to at least 200 workouts in 2024, I’ll be happy.

My second goal for 2024 might need to be changed. The original goal I had for myself was to find a way to save money so I could finally go on a vacation. I still want to see if I can accomplish this goal this year because it’s been a very long time since I’ve had a vacation. I think my trip to Catalina was my last vacation, which was awesome, but I’d love to get away from LA for a fun trip this year if possible. But on New Year’s Eve, my car was hit by a firework and has some pretty decent damage on the door. My car is drivable and the lock and door work, but it will need to be fixed. And I know that any work I do on my car will be pretty expensive. I’m going to work on getting some estimates soon and I’m going to look into whether I want to go through my insurance or not (going through insurance might end up being more expensive if my premiums go up after making a claim). But the amount that I was hoping to have for a vacation may have to go into fixing my car instead and a vacation might have to wait another year. I’ll just have to see how expensive the repair will be.

My next goal is a continuation of one from last year. I want to go as full force as possible with my acting career this year. I am starting the new year in a good place with a lot of things happening for my acting career. I have a new agent, I’m getting new headshots, I’ve re-edited my reel, and I’ve worked on updating my online casting pages. There are other things I haven’t had a chance to do or look into just yet, but I’ve made a lot of progress in the last month that will help to support things moving forward this year. I know that getting auditions and booking jobs aren’t fully in my control, but I’m doing whatever I can to make sure I’m ready for opportunities and I hope that I see some new progress in my career over the next 12 months.

My final goal for 2024 is another one that I feel like I’ve kind of done in the past, but it’s still important. I want to find the time to enjoy life. It’s so easy for me to wake up early, go to my workout, work my day job, make dinner, go to bed, and repeat. Week to week my schedule is pretty consistent, which isn’t a bad thing, but it also makes time go by without me realizing it at times. I want to enjoy my life as much as possible because that is the point of life. I do make plans with friends when I can, but I need to be more active in reaching out to friends and scheduling things. I have some days that are really difficult for me to do things after work, but that’s not every day. So I should take advantage of the evenings when I do have more flexibility and do things that aren’t just sitting at home and doing nothing.

I know these goals aren’t anything crazy or extreme, but I think they are good goals for me to focus on so that I can make the most of 2024. I still will have my monthly challenges that will push me to do more than just these goals throughout the year. But I think these main 4 goals are things that will really benefit my life in the long run. And I hope in a year, I will be reflecting on these goals and proud of what I have been able to do.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailMy 2016 Goals (or I’ve Got Some Big Ideas This Year) Default ThumbnailMy 2023 Goals (or Some New Goals and Some Repeats) Default Thumbnail2020 Goals (New Year, Not All New Goals) Default ThumbnailMy 2021 Goals (or Preparing For A Year With Lots Of Unknowns) Default ThumbnailMy 2017 Goals (or I Know This Year Will Be Amazing!) Default ThumbnailWhat I Plan To Do This Year (or 2015 Goals)

Comments Off on My 2024 Goals (or Things Already Might Need To Change A Bit)

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Saving

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Wrapping Up My 2023 Workouts (or Still Making Sure I Hit My Goal)

Posted on January 1, 2024 | Comments Off on Wrapping Up My 2023 Workouts (or Still Making Sure I Hit My Goal)

My final week of workouts for 2023 wasn’t my normal workout week. On Monday the studios were closed because of the holiday. And Tuesday had reduced hours since it was the day after Christmas. The reduced hours meant none of the class times would work with my work schedule, and since I wasn’t going to take the day off after having a day off, I just had to miss that day. But I still got in my Wednesday and Thursday workout, plus I got a workout in on Sunday for New Year’s Eve!

I knew this past week was going to be a tough week with pain and nausea, but I kind of got lucky and the worst day of the week for me was on Tuesday. Tuesday was pretty brutal for me and I was struggling a lot while I was working, but at least I didn’t have to go through feeling like that and working out. So it was probably for the best. I still wasn’t feeling great on Wednesday or Thursday, but at least those days were better for me.

And Thursday’s workout was a day I wanted to feel as close to normal as possible. First, it was a signature workout day. We had Everest, which is always a big challenge to get through and I wanted to see if I could get close to my past PR. But also, Thursday’s workout was my 200th class of 2023! In past years, I have gotten to my year’s workout goal a little bit faster than I did this time. But as I mentioned in my last post, I had a few things that set me back in and cut into my workout plans. But at least I got to my goal before the end of the year!

Everest went a lot better than I had expected. I was able to pedal a lot faster than normal for the beginning of the climb which added to my distance. As the incline/resistance levels went up, I did slow down quite a bit. That always happens and that is why I work hard at going quickly in the beginning. As the incline/resistance levels went down, I really focused on my pedaling speed and making sure I was going faster as the time was counting down. For the 3 group classes, Everest is 14 minutes long, so it wasn’t any longer than I normally am on the bike. But I knew that any breaks I might take could ruin my chances of getting close to my past PR so I pushed myself to try not to take any. I did have to take one quick break when my nausea really kicked in, but that was not that long. And when the challenge was done, I ended up beating my past PR and getting a new one!

I have no clue how I did that, but I also know I might have pushed myself too much because the rest of that class was not nearly as good for me. My nausea was hitting me really hard. But I guess I should be glad I was able to hold off feeling horrible until after the challenge was done!

And my final workout of this week and for this year was on Sunday! I didn’t go too early in the morning since I wanted to sleep in a little bit to stay up for New Year’s Eve. If I didn’t have to work in the morning, I probably would do a slightly later workout since I think my body does better in later classes (but working out after work doesn’t work for me so I have to do early morning classes). I was feeling rested and ready for my last class of 2023 and I had a surprise when I got there. The coach for that class was someone who worked at the Brentwood studio that I hadn’t seen in years! She wasn’t a coach the last time I saw her, so this was my first chance to take a class with her! I had so much fun in that class and it was awesome to see someone I hadn’t seen since much earlier in my fitness journey.

I’m so proud that I was able to get to my workout goal for the year. I don’t think I’ll ever make it higher than 200 classes in a year since going more than 4 times a week is probably pushing it for me. But knowing that I pushed myself 201 times in 2023 is something I am so happy about accomplishing!

Here’s to getting to my workout goal in 2024 and beyond!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailWrapping Up My 2021 Workouts (or An End To One Year And A Start To Another) Default ThumbnailFinishing Up The Last Workout Challenge of 2023 (or Working Around New Issues Again) Default ThumbnailWorking Out Into The New Year (or The End of My 2015 Workouts And Beginning of My 2016 Workouts) Default ThumbnailFirst Week of Workouts After The Challenge (or Weird Workout Times) Default ThumbnailGoal Recap Time! (or Things Didn’t Go Exactly As Planned) Default ThumbnailA Normal Week With A PR (or The Break Between Holiday Week Workouts)

Comments Off on Wrapping Up My 2023 Workouts (or Still Making Sure I Hit My Goal)

Posted in Fitness

Tagged , , , , ,