Today I wanted to focus on spirit and the spirit we are talking about is the spirit of DRIVE. I can not say enough about my best friend screenwriter and filmmaker Jasmin Greene she to me captures the spirit of DRIVE. Daily we talk about our dreams and ambitions and though she may not know it she inspires me to be better. Each day she is working on several scripts at once, taking classes for her second masters in film, working a normal gig, maintaining her film blog, looking for another gig, meeting with industry folks and countless number of other DRIVEN activities.
On our recent trip to Peru she managed to squeeze work in creating her first short film entitled “Terminal A” Please enjoy! Stay tuned for a full feature on Jasmin.
Paparoxi is all about cherishing your uniqueness in a way that you celebrate who you are everyday. When you have come to a point where you know who you are and what your purpose is in life in our eye you have really hit that Rox(I) status. So today’s inspiration is Pat Cleveland. Fashion designer, supermodel and icon. Affectionately known as the “Catwalk Queen” Pat did things her way, never formally taught about how to model Pat developed her own signature walk that lit up runways in New York, Paris and Milan. What makes her a Rox”Inspiration” is her fearlessness about being herself. Upon walking the streets of New York one day she was approached by a woman who was intrigued by her clothes and style she asked Pat who had designed the ensemble and in fact Pat had made her own outfit. The woman was from Vogue and the rest is history. Check out this interview with Pat. Enjoy!
It has been a minute since we last touched base. I hope that you all are deep into the groove of keeping your weight loss goals and if you are not I hope that you have at least gotten back on track this week. Today I wanted to focus on what motivates you to loose weight and stay fit. Some of you may know that I was away on vacation last week and I did manage to stay on track (maybe plus a couple pounds) but it was nothing serious, however coming back this week I really had to get back on track. It got me thinking about what my motivation is to stay slim and what continually keeps me motivated.
In my experience my motivation has varied drastically. A few years ago when I got out of relationship the motivation was to look amazing so my ex would faint (I know I know lol). At other times my motivation was to loose weight for the summer so I can look great in my clothes, or to look hot for a vacation coming up or an event my reasons were, even at one point my motivation was the Ciara “Ride” video (don’t judge me she looks great). Needless to say the motivations have been varied. However, now that I am probably in the best shape that I have been in my entire life I began to think what still motivates me? I have no major events coming up soon, I am not trying to look great for a man, and I just came back from vacation so what still keeps me going? I think my biggest motivation is the fact that I don’t want to go back to where I was and do all the hard work again. Many of you are at different stages in reaching your goal, but if you were told that tomorrow all of your hard work would be reset you wouldn’t be too happy. I guess in a weird way that fear keeps me motivated. Everything else that pertains to my healthy lifestyle is not a motivation but a joy meaning, when I go to spin class, or I eat an amazing healthy dinner its not because I am trying to stay fit in the back of my mind its because I enjoy doing those things.
This clearly has not always been my way of thinking but it is amazing to think that these healthy habits are engrained in me to the point where I enjoy them (who would’ve thought!). I hope this weight loss Wednesday that you begin to think of your motivations and how to make them into sustainable long lasting lifestyle changes so that you beat your goal for this challenge and maintain a healthy way of life. Enjoy!
I would like to hear what motivates you, feel free to leave a comment so we can start a discussion! Thanks.
I have been to my share of side splitting ab killer classes. You could hear the moaning from out of the building. The people in the class would be from a wide array of fitness levels and backgrounds and we were all seeking that one goal of having nice chiseled abs. In my years of journeying toward fitness I don’t necessarily know if those classes worked. I know that on some level they strengthened my abdominals however all of us in the class wanted to see our abs not necessarily be able to hold 6 inches for an hour. I remember Bob Harper from The biggest loser once saying “We all have a 6 pack of abs it’s just under all that fat”. That notion has stuck with me in the past few years when I really started to see the abs I always wanted. I began to run, and that is when I saw the biggest results. I started off barely being able to run a half a mile to now I am up pass 10 miles. My abs look better then they have in years, especially those years where I took the ab classes. Most of us need to change our mindset when it comes to doing abdominal exercise. If you are new to the fitness game and you have weight to lose around your midsection taking an ab class to get a 6pack shouldn’t be your first priority. Trust I am not saying do not work your abdominals (I still do) but the truth is this type of work strengthens your core and helps you in all areas of fitness, it does not (as most fitness advertisements would have your believe) give you a 6-pack only cardio and diet do that. And that my friend is the truth, Rox on!
Yesterday like thousands of other people on the net I came across this video clip from poet Janette Ikz titled “I will wait for you”. Seeing some of the comments that I was reading on Facebook and Twitter I was a little hesitant to watch but I did anyway. I was absolutely blown away. God was definitely using her to speak to millions of people out there. Her words ripped through my surface and spoke straight to my heart. I think at this point I have watched more than 10 times and felt so strong as to put up a post about it today.
There are many obvious reasons why so many woman are finding this poem ringing so true to their own lives and struggles. I think most of us have been on the date with the sorta-kinda’s, the Luke Warms, and carbon copies I know I have. To take it a step further we have been in relationships long term ones with these types of men, or maybe some of us have even married one at some point. We all know what that looks like. Knowing somewhere buried in the back of your mind that this man is not for you, but you try to make it work anyway, I have been there. The old me probably would have stopped writing at this point because I would have concluded by telling myself: “HE was just not good enough for me”, “HE has not found me yet”, “HE needs to find God and change his life”… but do you see the problem with this?
It is really easy to point the finger at the no good men out there but at what point do you examine your own life? Because in addition to the obvious message of the poem, underlying she talks about her own self awareness. Her heart attack in which she unclogged her heart of her own will and refilled it with God’s will. Or the things she has written that only God would know: Prayer. And most important the woman who she describes herself as:
“And you will know me and you will find me with the boldness of Ester meets the warm closeness of Ruth, with the hospitality of Lydia, is aligned with the submission of Mary which is engulfed in the tears of a praying Hannah, I will be the one drenched in Proverbs 31 waiting for you.”
CLEARLY she has put in some serious work on herself to even begin to vocalize in such detail the type of man that is even worthy of calling her his wife. She has done the soul searching, sacrificing, praying, fasting, and many other things involved with truly taking time to examine ones life without distraction. This is not as one comment suggest “Single Ladies Anthem” it is probably the furthest thing from that.
For me my journey started 1 year and 3 months ago, when after many unfortunate events I found myself like her (and millions of woman out there) broken hearted and starting from scratch. I started a 6 month coarse of action in which I didn’t entertain dating or relationships I just worked on me. It was one of the best decisions I think I have ever made. The distractions were gone and I spent an immense amount of time praying, reading, volunteering and I even trained for a triathlon. I am not perfect I have made mistakes since but all in all I look at myself in the mirror today and I have transformed into the woman in Proverbs 31. And if you aren’t there yet or with a sorta-kinda you can change what your waiting period looks like…
At the end of the day the man who has Solomon’s wisdom, attention to detail like Noah, the integrity of Joseph and the unconditional love of Christ will not find you while your still drunk texting an ex when you get lonely, or spending your last on a nice pair of shoes before you would donate it or give to a loved one, still gossiping about your friend’s man, keeping option no.2 just in case your main boo doesn’t work out, or dressed in your best freakum’ dress grinding on your girl (trust I have been there)…This man will not find you.
Every body has their own path. So the time period may not be the same for you or the means in which you examine your life and make changes will not be the same, but take the time put in the work and become that woman so maybe that GOOD man can find you, and more importantly so you can find yourself.
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