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I call it the Sunday Slay.
That’s my name for the hour that I spend each Sunday meticulously planning the week ahead and it’s one of the ways I manage to juggle a full-time teaching schedule with writing for several publications, running See Jane Write, exercising, and trying to have a social life.
Here’s how you too can use Sunday to can set yourself up to slay the week ahead. (more…)
This weekend, for the first time ever, I participated in the Vulcan Run, a 10K race held annually in Birmingham that attracts about 1,000 runners each year.
I have never been more nervous for a race. I couldn’t really figure out why. I’ve run a half-marathon — twice — which is more than twice the number of miles of a 10K. I also trained for this race for a month. Yet, the morning of the Vulcan Run I was so nervous my stomach started to hurt.
I was convinced I’d be too slow to finish the race in the two-hour time limit or that my legs would just stop working around mile five.
Nevertheless, I laced up my Nikes and set off to pound the pavement. This race, like so many others, would not only teach me plenty about running but impart lessons about writing, too.
Do you listen to music when you write?
Marie Sutton, author of The A.G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham: A Civil Rights Landmark, once revealed at a See Jane Write workshop that she was able to muster the energy to write the chapters of her book each night (after a long day of work and taking care of her family) by listening to Kanye West.
I’ve never had much success listening to music while I write. I tend to do better in quiet spaces, although I can be quite production in a busy coffee shop, too.
Nevertheless, music is essential when it comes to accomplishing other goals of mine — especially those related to fitness. Sometimes I feel as if my body cannot and will not make the movements necessary to run unless great music is being pumped into my ears.
That’s why when I was training for this year’s Vulcan Run 10K, which I ran today, selecting the music for my running playlist was as essential as getting in enough short and long runs before the race.
I’ve share my playlist below in case you have a big run coming up, too!
Do you listen to music when you write?
What are some of your favorite songs to listen to while running?
It’s time for another 15 confessions!
What do you have to confess?
I had no idea I’d lost 20 pounds.
My pants were easier to button, my dresses easier to zip. But since I usually only step on a scale when a medical professional forces me to do so, I had no idea I’d lost 20 pounds.
Then I went to a wellness screening mandated by my health insurance provider, stepped on the scale, looked down and saw a number 20 pounds less than the number I saw the last time I’d weighed myself.
“Your scale is broken,” I declared to the nice nurse practitioner filling out my paperwork. She just laughed and assured me it was not. I didn’t believe her. When I got home I weighed myself again and those 20 pounds were still nowhere to be found. “Maybe my scale is broken, too,” I thought.
Last week my fellow teachers and I returned to work after a two and a half month summer break and that’s when I realized those scales must have been right.
“Oh my gosh! Javacia, you look great!” one co-worker exclaimed. “Wow! You got so skinny!” said another. “Girl, what did you do?” a colleague asked.
Good question. What did I do? And how can I use the same principles I used to lose weight to help me with my writing and blogging goals?
I’ve realized that there are four things that helped me lose weight: mindset, movement, motivation, and momentum.