When you’re determined to do something, what motivates you?

Last night, I was doing a speed Karazhan/ZA run with some people in my guild, and in between instances, when we were travelling, one of the guys said “Be back in 20 minutes or so, going for a quick jog.” That sent my mind running. Going for a jog? Randomly? Just whenever you feel like it? This is such a foreign concept to me! I haven’t ever done something like that, as far as I can remember, but it made me want to.

Today, I’ve been catching up on this season of the Biggest Loser. Watching them lose weight makes me motivated too, but not so much that I get unrealistic expectations of what I can do. I haven’t lost weight in ages. It’s like it just WILL NOT happen. However, I’ll get there. In the meantime, I can just keep pushing forward and being happy with who I am.

So here’s my question to you: What motivates you to do the things you want to do, or the things that you need to do?

I’m a member of a few different teams on Sparkpeople. One of them just happens to be something called “1 Day Challenge” and is exactly what it sounds like. The fantastic leader posts a new challenge every night for the following day. Tomorrow is, as the title of this post suggests, beautify day. This is pretty fitting for what I had planned for tomorrow, so I’m excited! Since I like lists so much lately, here’s one with my plans for tomorrow!

• Laundry. This is a must. In my last couple of loads I have managed to fail to get all of Matt’s shirts washed and he won’t have anything to wear on Monday when he goes back to work, which is, well, not a good thing.
• Clean my desk. This isn’t the most important thing in the world, but it makes me happy to have a clean work(/play)space in front of me. Plus, it’s gotten pretty cluttered over the past few days and it could be better arranged.
• Clean up the bedroom. Pretty self-explanatory, but the reason it’s such a disaster area right now is because I took almost everything out of the closet the other day in case it was getting repaired. Long story short, it’s not repaired, and I messed up the REST of the room for nothing. Oh well, it needed to be organized anyway, I guess.
• Vacuum. As gross as this is, I’m shedding again. It always happens when I get stressed, and in the wintertime, which means right now, I’m surprised I’m not bald! So I want to vacuum up the room and get rid of the evidence.
• 5v5. You expected me to have a post without any WoW stuff in it? Pfft, shame on you. I have 5v5 (Arenas) tomorrow at 5:00 my time. Wish us luck! We need it. We’re a bit of an, er, unconventional team. Mostly doing it for the experience, I guess.
• Work out. I’m not going to the gym tomorrow (I’ve decided Monday, Wednesday, Friday for the gym. Easiest that way.) but I will do a small workout on Yourself! Fitness if I can get Matt out of the room for 15 minutes. Maybe I’ll ship him off to Wendy’s for food!

So that’s my day tomorrow. It doesn’t sound too busy, but it is for me. And it’s nice having the day mapped out like that, so I know what needs to be done and all that. Oh, I forgot to add one thing to the list, but I’m just going to put it here. I’m going to give myself a bit of a pampering session. Shower and shave, wash my hair and condition it, attempt to style my hair, lotion, mani/pedi… the works. Hey, it is Beautify Day, right? Right.

I might install some new plugins on the site, as well. Any recommendations for things you just can’t live without? I’d appreciate it!

It’s just past 3 pm now and I’ve already done more than I do on most days. I’m dressed, like I said I would be, in regular clothes instead of pajamas. I’ve eaten breakfast and lunch and drank half of my water for the day, and logged it all. I’ve re-opened Unwritten with the intent to start posting a picture per day again. I’ve cleaned out my email inbox, which makes me feel so happy. I hate a cluttered inbox. I’ve cleaned the litter box, which was very necessary, even though I hate doing it. I’m getting ready to get some hot water and dish soap in the sink to soak the dishes in there, and put away the laundry that I did the other day. And as you’ve probably noticed, I’ve put up a new theme at Words Unspoken. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve got energy to be productive today.

After I do “real life” chores, I’m probably going to log in to World of Warcraft, do some daily quests, and get the rest of my honour for my PvP pants. I don’t have much left to go on them and I’ve been slacking the past few days with honour because, well, it’s not really the most important thing in my life, you know?

It’s sunny out, Matt and Mew Mew are laying in bed, I’ve got an apple cinnamon scented oil candle burning, and a big jug of water next to me, and everything just feels right with the world.

I really wanted to be lazy today and just stay home and play games. I really did. But instead, I’m going to the gym around 4:30 for a Newbody class. It sounds like a good class for me:

Newbody is an exclusive GoodLife Group EXercise program created by our very own Mo Hagan, 2006 IDEA Fitness Instructor of the Year. Newbody is a multi-level class that improves your energy, strength and endurance, making your day-to-day activities easier. Burn calories in this fun, low-impact and easy-to-follow class by combining cardio conditioning with optional hand weights. Learn how to properly use your abs and back muscles to improve your posture and reduce back pain.

Tonight, I have a raid at 9:00 my time. It was supposed to be Gruul and Magtheridon but we seem to be short on warlocks, so I think we’ll be doing Lurker instead. I think I forgot to post when we killed him last week, whoops! But we did. And I got a nice new shiny Cord of Screaming Terrors, which I love, love love. I was afraid that spending DKP on that would put me out of the running for the Eye of Magtheridon, but I’m still highest caster DPS, so I have to just make sure to keep raiding the 25-man raids until the next time we take him down!

In other World of Warcraft news, the highly anticipated 2.3 patch seems to be coming for us next Tuesday, which is great! I can finally start leveling Thae again, and maybe I won’t feel so burnt out with the addition of new daily quests (yay!), a new dungeon (double yay!) and heroic badges dropped in Karazhan (even more yay!).

In response to my being burnt out lately, I’ve been playing Everquest 2 a lot again. I can’t pull myself away from the computer most of the time, but at least now there’s some variety. I don’t think I’ll continue playing it forever, but I’ll enjoy it while I have it!

Anyway, I’m off to shower before the gym. I did a load of laundry last night, despite feeling icky, so I have some clean clothes to go work out in. I think I need even more pants and some new tank tops, though. We’ll see!

Also… I want to say a huge congratulations to my good friend (and soul mate!) Leesha, who has recently discovered that she’s pregnant after a long time of trying. I won’t say I’m not jealous, because I totally am, but she knows that there’s nobody that I think deserves such happiness more than she does. ♥

OH! As if this post wasn’t long enough already, I have a request. Please post your healthiest recipes and ideas for me - I’m seeming to fall out of the habit of eating healthy and it’s coming around to bite me, despite all the exercise I’m doing! So any help would be so much appreciated!

I need to get back to reality. I need to start working out again, because my leg is finally healing. I need to get motivated. I need to bring my confidence level up. I need to do a lot of things.

Right now? I need to put on some Friends (Season 7, for those interested) and go to bed. I’ve had two Smirnoffs and a pretty rough night and now I need some sleep! My eyes are swollen, my head hurts, and I’m just plain tired! Enough whining, though. You don’t come here to read my whining!

I’m starting to really love photography. I don’t know if I’m that good, but I like what I do, anyway. Every day I pick my favourite picture and post it at Unwritten. I don’t have it set up so you can comment on the pictures over there, but feel free to tell me what you think! I’d love some feedback, really!

Today’s picture was from outside a restaurant that Matt’s mom, aunt and I went to for lunch. I was a good girl and had a salad, and the bad girl in me had some garlic bread. First thing I’ve eaten with butter in almost a month! But I only had the garlic bread because it came with the salad. No harm done, right? I was still within my limits for the day!

I’ve decided that if I reach my goal this month, I’m going to get a haircut. Nothing drastic, probably just a trim and a bit of a styling. I could use it. I feel pretty blah about myself right now.