Home Sweet Home In The 305

Good Morning all you gym rats out there! What an absolutely fantastic morning it is too! Of course every morning (well, every minute pretty much) of the past 4 days has been superb as well as I am officially a Miami resident!!!!!!! Okay, before all you fans of my historically sarcastic attitude get ready to barf, I'll admit I've been a bit on the overly positive side lately but I just can't help it! If you've been following me on Twitter @PortlandGymRat then you'll know just how happy I've been since arriving in this gorgeous sunny state! I've been wanting to blog sooner but due to a mishap with Comcast (Side-note: DO NOT ever ever ever use that company if you don't have to; their customer service is abominable!) I did not get internet connection until last night and was angrily over-dipping into my cell phone's data plan to use the internet all week long.

As I type I am sitting on my balcony, nicely shaded by a giant palm tree, overlooking my pool. Yeah, I live in a fucking paradise! I don't know why anyone would want to live anywhere else. I am so meant to be here! It's a slightly breezy day which nicely offsets the hazy-humid 81 degrees Fahrenheit it currently is at 10:00 am. This morning I awoke around 6:00 am and just like every other morning since arriving here I made breakfast and sat out on my patio dining al fresco while the sun began to rise and the world around me remained asleep. The sun rises a bit later here than in Maine but I'll take it since that means it also sets later and thus I'm not feeling like it's bedtime at 4:00 pm!

Post breakfast I drove across the street to my new favorite gym ever, Porky's, and trained back and core (I really don't even need to drive it's that close!) for a couple of hours. The gym is so totally me it could not be more perfect. It's like old school Bally's or Gold's. No frills but has all the necessary equipment, people are actually in there to put in work, not to socialize and chat on their cell phones while hogging all the equipment you need, and it's filled with actual FIT PEOPLE! On my second day there I not only met a trainer who is a local NPC show promoter but was also invited to join the bodybuilding team of a well-known successful bodybuilder! More on that at a later date as I need to meet with him and go over the details before I commit but how cool is that?! With all the effort I put into my diet and training, it feels so good to be recognized like that by a total stranger!

After my workout today I scooted next door to Publix (grocery store) and loaded back up on meat and veggies (I've been eating a ton of delicious fresh fish for dinner!) and then came home to walk Mugsy and shower. I think he is really loving it here too. He's getting so much more exercise since it's not a fucking tundra outside and he gets to enjoy being out on the patio with me all the time as well. The rest of my days since getting here have been filled-up with random errands and I'm feeling pretty comfortable getting around the area now. Yesterday I went to my school to check out the bookstore and it's literally on the same street that I live on. My whole world is literally so close, how perfect is that?! The only thing still causing me stress right now is my lack of finding a job but I'm applying to anything and everything I come across so hopefully something works out quick. Living in this palm tree paradise ain't cheap!

I noticed not too far from here a sign advertising a farmer's market on Sunday's from 10-3 so I am looking forward to checking that out tomorrow. I hope it's good. If I could get fresh grapefruits and oranges each week I might actually need a depressant I'd be so high on cloud 9 LOL!

One thing I've been wanting to write about lately is how many people over the past month have sent me messages via Linked-in, Facebook, Twitter, etc. along the lines of "What you're doing is so risky" or "That really takes guts" or "I wish I had the nerve to do something like that". The thing is though, I don't feel gutsy at all. I feel like I had just been so miserable for so long that this was my only choice. I needed to be in a new area. I needed warm weather. I needed to meet new people. I needed a new career. A new future. New experiences. Yeah, moving is a pain and it's extremely expensive and oftentimes stressful but you know what? It's worth it if you wake up and suddenly all the negatively that had been weighing you down for 7 years is gone and you can't wait to take on the day because you know only new and exciting experiences are ahead of you. Everything ALWAYS works out in the end, just remember that. You might have to go through hell to get there but if you want something you can have it if you work for it. Take that step. Just go for it. Don't live vicariously through someone else's experiences wishing you had the balls to go after your dreams. Go after them now before it's too late and you're 65 or 70 years old, finally retiring from a career that brought you no personal satisfaction, and you're ready to do whatever it is you've always wanted to do only you can't because you're old as fuck and you're tired and you're body doesn't work the same as it used to and you feel like you're chance is over. Anyway, I just can't stress enough that everyone who is feeling stuck in a life they don't want should just cut ties and move on. The only guarantee in life is death. Don't you want to make the most of the time you have?

People's reaction to my life change is both motivating to me and extremely saddening. More people than you realize are unhappy in the life they are living and it doesn't have to be that way.

Well I'm signing off now before I blab on any longer. I'm going to research beaches to see if there are any worth checking out that may be closer than South Beach as I do not feel like dealing with traffic today. I hope you all had a safe and happy new year and have something to look forward to in 2015! If so, please share your goals below. I'd love to hear them! 'Til next time, happy gymming :)

  

Terminator

It's finally here, my LAST day of work! I've been waiting for this day to come for several years and now that it's finally arrived it seems rather uneventful LOL. Just sitting here, twiddling my thumbs, watching the clock tick ever-so-slowly until a suitable departure time arrives. Like T-4 hours ago J

After three stressful weeks I finally found solid tenants for my house who are coming to sign a lease tonight (knock-on-wood). Maybe once I have a signed lease in my hand I'll be able to sleep through the night for the first time in….fuck I don't even know the last time I got a solid 8 hours! My movers are all set to go now though so once I secure my tenants all I have to do is finish packing (surprisingly not a daunting task as I seem to be an expert packer from having moved so many times in the past) and it's pretty much smooth sailing from there. One thing I love about moving is that you end up eliminating a lot of things you don't need (Goodwill, Salvation Army, the dump) and you clean your house better than you probably did the entire time you lived there LOL!

This morning was my last super-early gym sesh and I crushed chest with a little added cardio. Here was the breakdown:

5 min elliptical warm-up

DB Chest Press on SB 3x10 using 25's

DB Incline Flies 3x10 using 20's

Decline Pushups from a SB with balancing in between sets 3x8

DB Incline Shoulder Press 1x8 using 25's and 2x10 using 20's (Burnout!)

10 min elliptical cool-down

I'll probably stick to my morning routine until I leave but it won't be quite so torturously early J

Can you believe Christmas is less than a week away? This is the first year I did not get a Christmas tree or even put up any decorations for that matter. The hassle of the never-ending pine needle pickup would have just been too much of a nightmare amidst all of the tenant walk-throughs I've had in my place. Surprisingly I haven't really missed it though. I guess I'm just too focused on my move to think about anything else! Luckily present shopping wasn't that stressful this year. I either already had ideas for people or got GCs which you know are usually preferred! I think tonight I'll watch one of my favorite Christmas movies, The Holiday. That'll be the extent of my festiveness for 2014.

So, the countdown is on. I'm so mentally over Portland you'd think I was already gone! You know what's really pissing me off? This just popped into my head so I need to vent it out. Ever since word got out a few weeks ago that I was leaving, guys have been asking to" hang out" left and right. I'm just like, "Dude, you had the past 7 years to ask me out and you think I'm going to say yes now that you've realized you've been too chicken shit this whole time and now you've blown it?!" Okay, so I don't actually say that but that's the truth. Moral of the story, don't be a pussy. If you like someone, ask them out. The worst that’s going to happen is they'll say no but chances are they'll give you at least one chance at a date, if for no other reason than to be nice. If you never ask then you'll never know. But, if you wait until your chance is gone, don't be a shithead for missing out.

Never Give Up

Good morning Miami! Um I mean Portland, okay well soon-to-be Miami! Yup, you read that right. I AM MOVING TO MIAMI! Wow it feels so good to finally be able to put that out there! In an effort to keep this post much shorter than it could be, I'll just give you the highlights for now:

1. That "last-minute trip south" I mentioned a year ago was actually an unsuccessful trip to Miami for a personal training job interview. Long story short, I clearly did not get the job and thus came back to Portland to continue my job search instead of moving there without a job which would have been a very bad financial decision at the time.
2. It's no secret that health and fitness have been my primary interests in life for years and I NEVER SHOULD HAVE MAJORED IN FINANCE! That being said, it took me 7 years to finally make the decision that being a broke student for a few years in my late 20's-early 30's would be a wiser decision than spending the rest of my life in a frigid miserable corporate environment where 99% of the people are just lying to themselves, trying to convince themselves that they are adequately content with their life choices all-the-while counting down the days until retirement.
3. It was a bit of déja-vu last week as I returned to Miami in search of a place to live. Again, not telling anyone at work of my true intentions for fear of not finding a place and then potentially being out of a paycheck (aka fired before the time was right). A bit of advice if you are planning a move; do your homework and use a rental agent. Specifically if you have an often restricted breed of dog like I do which made finding adequate housing extremely difficult!
4. In spring of this year I finally hit rock bottom with my misery level and decided I had had one too many failed job interviews and was done searching for "grass might be greener" corporate jobs in a state where I didn't want to be living anyway. My good friends had largely either remained in Canada or moved out of Maine to better their own lives and I was left feeling alone and tied-down due to my mortgage. There's a quote that goes something like "it's far better to be alone in a place where you know no one than to feel alone in a place where you know everyone". That's exactly how I felt. And that brings me to #5…
5. Done with time-wasting job interviews and done with the state of Maine I decided to take a drastic step and go back to school so that I could have a career that didn't make me want to stab my eyes out every morning. And trust me, that's a nice way of putting how I felt about my situation. Having followed the blog www.katheats.com for quite a while, I was inspired by Kath's similar decision to go back to school herself to become a Registered Dietician. Becoming an RD would mean a lot of additional schooling, basically starting back at square one since my finance degree did not provide me with any of the science prerequisite courses I would need in order to get into a Dietetics program. However, I decided it was a change I was willing to make and thus began my quest to change my life.

So, around June I began to research programs that prepare you for the RD exam. There is a great database at www.eatright.org that helps you to research the various nutrition-related career options and what schools in the US offer each. Since no school near Portland offers a suitable program, that meant I would have to relocate. And, if I had to relocate then I sure as hell was not going to go from one miserable cold locale to another! I knew I wanted to a) be near the ocean and b) be somewhere warm thus I quickly decided on Florida International University in Miami. Only one problem: out-of-state tuition is a bitch. I'm talking like twice as much simply for not being a resident. Outrageous! I had to get a little creative with my planning so I decided to begin taking my prerequisite courses at my local community college since they were quite reasonably-priced as well as transferrable. However, this did not fix my residency issue and thus I decided that I would make the move to Miami to complete my prerequisites at Miami Dade College with the intention of becoming a resident (1 year is required) in time to transfer to FIU.

After many months of keeping my plans largely on the down-low I can happily say the time is almost here! I took three courses this fall and tomorrow is my last exam! I've worked extremely hard, getting up at 4:30 am every day in order to train in the gym before heading to work where I remained full-time in order to save as much dough as possible and then headed to school at nights and on Saturdays. Yes, that meant zero social or romantic life but I had priorities and nothing was (is) going to prevent me from being happy.  I think I might even end up with all A's and since I have the credit requirement that would mean getting on the Dean's List! I'm literally holding back tears as I type this because if you had been a schoolmate of mine during my first university experience where my real major was college boys and booze you would not believe that LOL!

I gave my two-week notice at work earlier this week and I'm now riding out the next few weeks getting things in order for my move. That includes packing my house up, scheduling movers (expensive much?!), spending Christmas with my family, searching for a part-time job in Miami, and finding suitable tenants to rent my home which I decided not to sell quite yet just in case something doesn't work out (knock on wood). It's been hard to find tenants since it's a pricey place to live but it's also a really nice place and should be able to attract professional, financially stable tenants so I'm staying hopeful. Everything works out so long as you don't give up. If there's anything I've learned during the past few years it's that no matter how bad life gets, if you keep chugging through the hard times, you will end up where you need to be. While on my "vacation" last week I finally had time to for some pleasure reading (as opposed to textbook reading) and one of the books I devoured was The Alchemist. My favorite quote goes something like "when you want something, all the world conspires in helping you to achieve it". It's so true. Stay strong, keep your head up, and keep your eyes on your goal.

More to come. Happy Friday gym rats! xo