New Year's Resolution

Hi everyone!
  Hope you guys had an awesome Christmas!
   The New Year is right around the corner! I'm pretty excited!
I have A LOT of goals I want to achieve this year from things like sticking to a budget, keeping up with my QT (quiet time with God), and being healthier- eat cleaner, build more muscle, get lean and toned, and maybe get some visible abs? :D

    I plan on taking baby steps and using what I know to my advantage.
For example, I know drinking water first thing in the morning is good, but I don't always do it.
Sleeping 8 hours a night is also good for the body, but I stay up until 1:00 AM most nights.

Terrible

    I plan on making little mini-goals for 1-2 weeks, maybe shorter or longer if it needs to be, whether it be days or months.

    I haven't thought it out entirely yet, but I feel most of my goals are based on building up one after the other. Meaning, if I started off with drinking water every morning and then decided to drink tea as well.. I'd want to add both drinking water and tea into my morning routine.
Unless it is specific to building up into a habit, such as running every morning for 15 minutes because my end goal is to run a mile, however long it may take me- I won't be running 15 minutes and then aim for the mile.

    From my experience, eating, sleeping, and exercising go hand in hand. If I end up sleeping for three hours, I'm definitely going to skip my workout, and even if I don't skip, I won't be able to push myself they way I normally would. On top of that, I'd probably opt for take out instead of cooking something healthier.

   To balance all that, I might experiment juggling two or three mini goals at once- i.e. sleep/wake up early, drink water first thing in the morning, short workout. If I fail, I'll start with one, if it's successful, awesome.

   I'll be planning out my mini goals and share them with you all on New Year's Eve!
In the meantime, I hope you guys will do that same! You can't get to your destination without a roadmap, so SET your goal(s), PLAN how you will achieve them, DO it and COMMIT to it!

Good Luck!
   Yeon

God's Work

 Last Sunday, I learned about testimonies- about being a witness and most importantly, SHARING what you've seen, to testify.
Well, today, I am a witness, and I am sharing what I have seen.

   This morning, I was planning a budget for grocery shopping. We have recently gotten into a car accident (everyone is ok though!) and it has financially been a burden for me and my husband. I was feeling broken hearted, burdened, and I felt like a terrible parent, not being able to feed my own kids to their content because I wasn't sure if what I had was enough.
 Now, a couple months ago, I signed up for donations for my kids (and what I only understood that it was toys and clothes). I was aware I needed to be home for the delivery today, but with my sister visiting and my husband home, I was going to make a quick run to the grocery store. As I was getting ready to leave, I got a phone call from someone, informing me that she will be arriving within the hour. For some reason, I had it in my mind that I should stay and be there to open the door.
  An hour later, a group of smiling faces, boxes of food, and beautifully wrapped Christmas presents were in front of me. I didn't know what to think or what to say. Upon shutting the door, I literally swelled up in tears and I was overcome with joy and thankfulness.
  This is God's plan in work:
    I was given the sign up sheet in the morning for what is called the SECOR Christmas Outreach and it was the last day for the sign up sheets to be turned in- I was able to turn it in that afternoon.

Then I was told this past Thursday that I needed to be home for the delivery, which was Jade's last day of school before winter break. It's funny (and miraculous) because I decided she can start her break early, but something that morning got me up and got her ready for school.

Finally, the phone rang, the phone call that got me to stay home to open the door before going out to go grocery shopping, not knowing that I will be receiving food.

 

The boxes of food contained more than half my grocery list, and half my grocery list itself contained food I was going to get with my WIC check- This leaves a few items I needed to buy on my own, which I didn't mind, but at the bottom of one of the boxes contained an envelope, a $25 gift card.

God works in the most beautiful, mysterious ways.
Stories like this, I never thought I'd live to see happening to me. Maybe I have before and I just wasn't able to see, but it all coincides so convincingly:

 

The fact that we learned about sharing our testimonies this past Sunday and how all these events fit so mysteriously, I can only believe that God has given me his blessing to share it (Isn't it also eerie that I have started a blog just this week to share this story with the whole wide world?)
The closest I have gotten to events such as this were stories I enjoyed reading in one of my favorite books as a child, Chicken Soup for the Soul.

I am beyond blessed and thankful for today.

God Bless Everyone and Happy Holidays<3

Finish Strong!

It is now December 20!
Twenty days ago, I told myself I was going to work myself hard to achieve an awesome "before" body for the new year so that my "after" body would be even more epic.

So far, I haven't done anything to achieve my goal and I have 11 days left.

One of my weakness is not making a plan. I'm good at setting goals, but the "how"  and "what" isn't always there. On the occasions that I do sit down and take time to plan things out, I always feel good and most importantly, I come through and achieve my goals.

Though I have procrastinated terribly, I wanted to remind you guys, it's NEVER TOO LATE! Start when you want. You don't have to wait for tomorrow or next Monday to roll around. Start whenever you get your plan going :)

Anyway, this is what I keep in mind when making a plan:

- Add one change at a time

- Start with something easy/doable (or easily doable, ha)

-Don't feel discouraged even if what you thought would have been easy is more difficult than you thought.

-It's ok to REVISE. Always reflect on how you feel, write it down, and revise.

-Set mini goals. How long will you persist in the change for before adding to it or making it more challenging?

To set things into motion, here is what I will be doing for the last 11 days of December.

I have TONS of workouts pinned on my pinterest and this is one of them:
http://mobile.cafemom.com/group/118956/forums/read/18474056/5_100_fitness_challenge

• I'll be doing the above but a little differently

Instead of sit ups, I'll be doing crunches and reverse crunches (because I can't do sit ups)

Since I have 11 days, I'll be increasing to the amount listed every 4 days instead of weekly.

• I'm going to do HIIT exercises from BodyRock every other day
• I'm going to do planks everyday, 1:00 minute, 3 rounds
• I'm going to work on my roll ups and roll downs from pilates, 20x each everyday
  
  (I don't know when, but one day, I WILL do a sit up!! xD)

If needed, I will modify and take it easy or I will make it more challenging.
Along with this, I will also keep to my already existing training/workout regimen.

If there is anything I learned in the last two years of my weight loss/fitness journey, it's that you achieve goals by putting yourself in difficult situations and pushing through, not by being complacent.

I will be taking pictures and measurements on January 1, 2014 as my "before".
I'm not good at taking pictures and measurements every week or even on a monthly basis.
I plan on taking my "after" pictures and measurements on July 1, 2014.
However, if I am proud of my accomplishments sooner than the 6 month mark, I might take the "after" pictures sooner :)

Let's finish these last couple of weeks strong!

Yeon- :)

If interested, here is my pinterest page
http://www.pinterest.com/yeonxm/

I personally find it very messy, and I have intended to organize my boards and pins...but I haven't had the chance to.
But hopefully, you'll find it motivating, inspiring, and useful!

What's a Yeon?

Hi all!
   So reading my first post with a fresh set of eyes, it seemed a bit jumbled and I also didn't really introduce myself!

So here I go:

My name is Yeon (rhymes with fun!)
Basically...
I dream
I love
I laugh
I dance
I struggle
I live

My life involves God, my girls, my husband, and dancing.
- I have 24 years on me
- I have two daughters- they are three and four, super silly, and are more like sons :P
- My husband is half Hispanic, half Native American, which I thought was SUPER COOL because Pocahontas was my favorite Disney princess. (is that racist? xD)
- I am a B-Girl (a girl that breakdances)
- I am not the fittest or the strongest or the skinniest- But I am indeed a fitness enthusiast
- I love getting a good work out in or a good training session in (practicing breakdance)
- I am the WORST cook ever, but I try. Practice makes perfect, right?
- I am human and I do break down every now and then (who doesn't, right?) but for the most part, I am a happy-go-lucky girl who tends to have her head stuck up in the sky and be a bit too positive. I haven't decided if that's a good thing or a bad thing...but I'll go with it as being a good thing :)
- I am messy with my belongings but I am organized with my time, efforts, energy, and mentality- I might get behind on laundry, cleaning, and doing the dishes, but I have my appointments, gym time, errands, spare time (which is important! Take a moment for yourself!), taking care of my kids, doing my homework, studying, etc. all taken care of to the T.

I think for now, that's about it- we'll discover more about myself along the way. And who knows, these things may not be the same in the near or distant future :)

That Iffy First Step

Hi!
  First off, welcome!
And before I go any further, I just have to let this off my chest.
I have always wanted to blog!
Something about writing down your thoughts, what's happened internally and externally from your own life, your goals, your fears...I find it all exciting! Why? Because we grow, we change, we dream, we LIVE! To see growth within yourself, that change, I find it rather exciting!

Even looking at my old facebook posts from 4-5 years ago, I laugh at my "immaturity." The way I spoke, the way I presented materials, even the things I wrote- what I thought was cool, funny, or important...isn't quite so anymore. It is rather trivial and ignorant, in my opinion, and really pointless.

Point is, I want to see how far I go, how much more I mature and grow. I want to see my kids grow. I want to see what dreams I've achieved, what dreams I've strayed from, either intentionally or by accident.

I want to look back and see all the crazy things I had to go through to get to the point I will be in 5, 10, 20 years.

As much as I have wanted to blog, I never knew what to write about.
What in my life is worth jotting down?
Is any of it relevant?

After getting married and having two kids 4-5 years ago, I thought, "Great! I now have something to write about!"
But there I was, sitting behind my computer, and I didn't know what to say. Feeling confused and defeated, I put blogging back in the dusty corner of my brain.

Here I am now, still quite unsure what to write about, but what the heck, I'll write whatever I want!

This is my first iffy step towards marking my life and doing something I've always wanted to do!
I'll be writing about my hardships, my accomplishments, fitness tips, my goals, my silly theories of life, my favorite recipes, my probably-not-so-successful kitchen adventures, my kids, my husband, work out of the day, budgeting ideas, and everything in between! It's about living my life as me :P

I hope you guys enjoy what I have to say and I really do hope to be of a positive experience for you all!

I would ideally post once a week, but with my excitement and all, I might drop a few posts a week for a short while...a very short while :P

Until next time! :)