Monday Motivation: Notebooks and List Making

The notebooks in my bag today...

I carry notebooks with me all the time, I still get a thrill every time I buy a new one and think of all the things I will scrawl on the pages. I use my many notebooks for lots of things. I use my jotters for writing down my random ideas after a drive or sleeping, to organize marketing campaigns for work and to write long and short scripts. But, the biggest use of all of my blank sheets of paper is to make to-do lists. I am the Queen of Lists.

I used to be compelled to write my lists every day, I still do this at work each day but I have scaled back to weekly, monthly and yearly lists. Most of the items on my list are aspirational; they help me reach a larger goal. Others are smaller tasks or chores that need some slight nudge or push to get done. 

The single list I find most beneficial to my health is my eating plan for the week. I jot this down in my schedule during weeks when I really need to get back on track with clean eating. I reward myself with a predetermined treat if I meet my daily or weekly goals. 

Even though I love the way it feels when my pen hits the paper to start planning, I am looking to get rid of my manic array of notebooks. After buying my Fitbit I stopped carrying around my gym notebook, it now lives in a pocket of my gym bag just in case. I do not miss it, but I do miss looking back at my lifting progress. For my fitness blog please click here. 

I have always been a fan of keeping a physical planner, but I feel it will have to go as well. Last month I treated myself to a new laptop and I want to make the most of it in conjunction with my iPhone and other gizmos. 

So here is my question to you, what is your favourite app that keeps you organized? Better question, what motivates you? My lists and my little rewards are clearly my motivators, what makes you tick?  

A photo posted by Kate Bruce (@kategbruce) on Apr 29, 2015 at 8:31am PDT

Weird Things Happen To Me: Before I Die...

Weird things happen to me ALL THE TIME.

Honestly, it is kind of nice to have strange occurrences brighten up my day to day routine. I was just perusing one of my favourite websites that I use daily at work “Morgue File” and found an unexpected delight (as my boss would call it). I’m not sure if this photo was taken in Nelson, BC where I stumbled upon the “Before I Die...” wall or if my message was is so unique and strange that it stayed on the wall for an extended period of time, either way it hit me in the face today.

As I flipped through pages of photos of “art” I found the wonderful wall that had people lining up in Nelson to publicly share their goals and life ambitions with my message intact. Yes, my small hands have not only impacted someone’s view of an amazing public art exhibit but they have also contributed in a tiny way to one of my favourite sites.

Strange, eh?

My goal on the wall that day was very ambitious. I think I am better qualified to work towards it today than I was that day, but I am moving further away from working in the industry my dream pertained too... I’m not sure if I should be encouraged or discouraged seeing this photo about a year-and-a-half after expressing my dreams. I’m not sure if I was drunk with ambition or just a little buzzed... I know one thing is for sure, I miss that beautiful sun shine! Summer cannot come fast enough!

I’m not going to tell you my chalked-in goal, I’ll let you guess.

Now it is your turn, finish this sentence: Before I die I want to.... 

Checkout MorgueFile here: http://www.morguefile.com/

Creating My Own Marketing Textbook

Creating My Own Marketing Textbook

“2015 a year of learning, exercising and creating”

That has been my mission statement for this year. So far I think I have been doing okay at working on those three things. Today I am blogging about the first priority for this year, learning.

My new job working in marketing is one that requires a lot of learning on my part across the spectrum; learning new techniques, new computer programs and the scariest thing (for me) about banking. Working two jobs has proved to be a little bit much on top of my three goals. We have had a couple of snowdays so my living room has been turned into the University of Kate on the days I have time to dig into my Lynda.com curriculum.

One easy thing I have been doing to keep my brain in “learn mode” and to help build knowledge about Lynda.com is to read. Every day at my new job I sit and I read at least one article online. It can be about marketing, social media, innovation, finances, banking or business in general; whatever strikes my fancy or is trendy or relevant that day. I have learned an incredible amount from slowing my racing mind down for 5-10 minutes and reading an article. I then sum up the key points that pertain to my role at my job in one line on the paper and put it away until the next day.

things within my job that are not being covered by

Yes, it is that easy. One line a day and you are slowly creating your own personal textbook. I often go back and read through the list I have created thus far and reflect on the things I have learned in the past.

I often find my articles on LinkedIN or via my business buddies on Twitter. I have a few blogs that I love one being effUmarketing by Jordan Rycroft. My readings are not peer-reviewed articles or data plugged in and shot out at me to tell me what to think. The readings I do are from people working everyday in their respective fields and who see what is going on the in the world we try so hard to predict and cash-in on. Most of the articles are comprised of data that is complimented by anecdotal evidence or stories to back the overall message but have much more substance than an average blog and much less opinion.

That is just another thing I am doing to help myself learn new things in 2015. As you can see the longer I am at this job, the less time I have to do my readings. Do you have any tips? Leave them in the comment field or you can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter below. Let’s be friends :)

@KateBruce

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/katebruce

Welcome To 2015! Happy New Year!

I do not consider myself one of those people who are obsessed with fitness. I work two jobs and on the days where I only end up at one of my two work places I hit the gym; normally about 5 times a week. I take pretty good care of myself and watch my diet without really ever feeling like I am missing out on anything.

At one point I was very unhealthy and overweight, it started in my 4^th year of university and ended in halfway through my 1^st year of trade school. That year of binge eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted with little to no exercise was worth the lesson it taught me about life. Unfortunately no one really told me I was getting fat. I was 200 lbs and felt super hot. Usually because it was because I was winded from walking up stairs or moderate movement in general, but I never felt ugly.

I went into radio school bigger than I had ever been in my life. I started to realize what was going on with my body when I looked at my photos from my first trip to Disneyland in California and finally when visited Value Village and stepped on a scale for the first time in over a year. Late night snacks, quick drive-thru trips and 7/11 sugar rushes were adding up... fast.  

After deciding that enough was enough I started with the smallest step possible. Something manageable that I could do everyday, every morning I woke up with enough time to drink a protein shake before heading off to class. This was strategic, protein early in the morning helps you feel fuller later in the day and it was easy to do. Waking up early in the morning really was not my jam. Doing something quick and easy to start the day in the right day was key. I had been starving myself for the first half of the day and then fueling myself with something quick and easy for lunch at school. Unfortunately quick, easy and cheap is not a good combination in a school cafeteria.

My protein shake breakfast started during the winter months of 2012 and it is hard to believe it has been almost 3 years! To this day I have a shake for breakfast on mornings that I have to rush out to work and I still hate waking up before the sun.

That one easy step helped me drop weight quickly. The first pounds seem to be the easiest for me. I cleared out my stock of high carb food and scheduled my first cheat day. I have been doing this ever since.

The weight that I lost just by keeping an eye on my diet did more for me than I ever imagined. I had energy again. I had been napping every day since I was in high school and struggled to stay awake every day; that ended after about a week of smarter eating. I liked to look at myself again. Even though it never bothered me seeing photos of myself when I was overweight once I realized what was going on it tainted the moments a little bit.

It took a little over a year for me to feel comfortable enough to go back to the gym. I had been regularly going in the fall of 2010 but as I learned about health and my body I realized that my intense cardio workout were part of my problem staying committed to the gym. I knew as I was dropping weight from a healthier diet that I was going to have to change the way I exercised my muscles.

The first time I visited a gym after dedicating myself to eating properly was in the spring of 2013. I learned how to properly schedule my workouts and a variety of new diverse things to do at the gym. It was very intimidating. I was back in the gym that I had stopped going to when I started to gain weight but using a completely different floor with new machines. I did things wrong and it scared the shit out of me to be told that maybe I should tweak things to do them a more effective way but I kept at it.

My mother owns a tanning salon in a gym so growing up I spent a lot of time in a gym. I started lifting weights when I was in 8^th Grade in the weeks between seasons when I was not playing sports. As I got older my workouts changed into being straight-up cardio sessions. Why? It was easy, mindless (for me) and there was little chance that someone would approach me to correct my movements. I hated it which made me think it must be what I needed to do to lose weight and have a kick-ass body. Cardio was all my friends wanted to do when they went to the gym and there were rarely women downstairs on the weight lifting floor.

It was a big change to program workouts, track progress and lift heavy things. I still do cardio; I just do it differently and in conjunction with lifts.

Changing my thought process regarding working out has been the most challenging part of my weight loss story. I do get bored with my workouts some times and my schedule has changed multiple times since I started working out. These things have taught me another valuable lesson about being healthy and fit; willpower is a muscle you have to train just like any other part of your body.

In 2013 I made it about 15 weeks straight hitting the gym. I moved across the country during this period, finished post-secondary education and internships. When I was offered a job in British Columbia it brought me into the 9-5 fold and I was thrown from my fit routine. It took me about 9 months to get back into a gym after the move.

That was 40 weeks ago today. Yes, I keep track. That is one of the key things for me. I am a nerd who carries around a notebook at the gym so I can proudly tell you exactly what I did the last time I was there and how many times I have visited the gym since I started going back. It has been 40 weeks and 165 gym sessions and I feel great. I feel better than ever actually. I would be going to the gym today if it was open, I could write a massive rant about why the gym should be open on New Years Day but I decided to start 2015 on a positive note.

Back to willpower, it is a “muscle” that always can use an extra set. Even on the days I do not feel like going to the gym (which is pretty much every weekday after working at my desk job) I go. I put an hour on the clock and go hard. I let myself do some mindless cardio and rock out to my music. I prove to myself that my mind is as strong as the body I have spent so much time to build.

Now, to be clear I do not have the perfect body. Not even close. Especially coming out of the holiday season. That is not why I go to the gym. I go to release the energy that I now have from eating and sleeping well, I go to get out of the house and see people, I go because I like to binge watch television shows and I go because I LOVE to eat. And sometimes when I make the turn to go home instead of to the gym I think about seeing myself on the TV monitor while I was taking Radio and Television Arts and seeing my bloated face’s headshot. I think about how crappy it felt to not want to watch myself on TV, something I has wanted all of life. That for me is the kicker, the thing that gets my ass into the gym and helps my willpower kick in when it needs to at the grocery store.

We all have motivations and things that drive us to be the person we want to be. I like to think I had a kick ass 2014, I hope you did too! As great as the past year was, lets make 2015 even better!

This year I am not setting New Years Resolutions. Not one. There are things I would like to keep up on, but I will not be beating myself up to get them done. I would like to continue to learn; so I have gifted myself Lynda.com access. I would like to continue to be fit and healthy, so Santa has brought me 40lbs of protein powder and 4 boxes of Quest bars to go with my year gym membership. I have also gifted myself a new gym outfit from Fabletics. Nothing feels as good as slipping into new workout gear after a day in heels and business attire!

The most challenging thing I would like to do in 2015 is to continue to create. Working two jobs I find I have no time to write a blog or something witty for radio and that is the big thing I would like to exercise my willpower on this year.

So I’m going to sum up how I would like to see 2015 in my mission statement right here:

“2015 a year of learning, exercising and creating”

What would you like to happen in 2015?

All the best and Happy New Year!

Kate

PS

A BIG THANKS to CanadianProtein.com for all of the awesome deals on my Christmas gifts. Yes, I know where Santa shops. It is my favourite place to order pre-workout, protein powder and protein bars. Click here to check out CanadianProtein.com.

One more shutout, this one goes to Fabletics. I am obsessed! I used to be all about Lululemon and saving up to treat myself to a new piece of workout clothing. Now I shop at Fabletics.ca and get an entire outfit for the price on one of the Lulu shirts I bought at a Lulu Outlet! Check out Fabletics here.

PS. This is my new outfit! I love it! At 50% it was $56.00 with shipping and taxes. 

"Savage"

Rant: Gym Selfies

I’m not sure what annoys me more constant pictures of babies or gym pics on social media.

If you didn’t enjoy that line, stop reading now. You really won’t like what is to come.

You know what, I actually I have an answer to that. I would much rather see cute photos of your baby or pet then a body shot of you at the gym.

Maybe I am a jerk saying this, but to me it is the most self-centered thing you can post. As a friend, I am so proud of your efforts to get out and work out. Good for you (seriously)! Going to the gym everyday takes dedication. It truly is like having a part-time job taking care of your body to get it to competition level for bodybuilding; or working of extra weight you have been carrying around.

Last year around this time I became a dedicated gym-goer, for no real reason. I love the size and shape I was, I was the smallest I have ever been when I started at the gym but my body was still giggly. Also, I had a lot of time on my hands while I was at radio school. I never got on the on my phone at the gym photo-train, in fact I have stopped going to gyms because of people who do this.

At my gym in Calgary every time I went I had to side step around people taking pictures of themselves and talking on the phone while working out. I think it is so obnoxious and (again) self-centered.

To me, the gym is a sacred place. Gyms are places where make-up melts away from your face like you are the Wicked Witch (if you are doing it right). They are places where fashion is not as important as functionality, who cares what you are wearing! The goal is that no one will want to see that outfit and this may sound harsh, but your face when you’re done working out.

I will admit, as soon as I am back from California I am joining the gym in Castlegar. I was pretty obsessive about working out before I moved to B.C., but once I started working my career became my obsession.

Every time I stop going to the gym or playing sports regularly my mind trips me up. I see that I am losing weight (muscle) and think it is all going to be okay by just eating smart. But, after that drop in weight and fun period that makes you think you never needed to go to the gym in the first place to drop weight, you start to blow up the scale again.

Right now I will gladly post that I am 171lbs on vacation (yup, a little chubby). This is the largest I have been in a while, I have been weighing in about 165lbs but on vacation I have been retaining water and eating pretty poorly (sweets and wine).

I actually really like the routine of going to the gym. For me, it has been really hard to try to get back to working out since I have moved to B.C. I have not really had a routine since I moved to B.C.; at first it was constant trips around to Calgary and Vancouver. Then it shifted to periods co-hosting the morning show and pretty much constant exhaustion (it really was not for me). I am a person who thrives when I am able to have a routine and it looks like now I can finally get back into one.

Right now, I can’t wait to get back to the gym when I get back to B.C. But, I can promise you I won’t be taking daily update photos of my journey to fitness. I won’t even be blogging about it.

Right now I do not have a goal for working out. I always try to set goals for things I do, maybe I will try a natural physique competition next year? I do want to run at least a 5k this summer. Maybe that is my goal…

Kate's Bucket List: Visiting Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween

I set weird goals for my life.

I have a notebook jam packed with the things that I want to do before I die. Some of them are admittedly crazy lame, some are tests of will power and strength that I just do not have at age twenty-four, but most of them relate to travel. Most of them, like the subject of this blog are total clichés.

Growing up my family never traveled, when I was in the second grade I went on a ‘vacation’ (with my aunt, grandmother, brother, cousin and a strange pseudo relative  teenage boy I would never see again)  to Prince Edward Island and I thought it was the best place on earth . Mostly because of Rainbow Valley, a place I visited again as a teenager and realized was ghetto Disneyland (in the best possible way) and Anne of Green Gables.

Back to the point, my family never travelled growing up. During all of our non-travel time I took in a whole bunch of TV time with my Grandfather, he is all about watching television judge programs on FOX Rochester. Halloween was my favourite time of year; I got to see all the crazy happenings and poorly produced commercials in an area of the world obsessed with Halloween. Most 90s TV sitcoms referenced Salem and I fell in love with the idea of spending the spookiest night of the year in the Halloween Capital of the world; Salem, Massachusetts.

I am now twenty-four years old and every time Halloween passes I am reminded of my goal to experience Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween. Yeah, I get a little sad that I haven’t made the trip to what I consider the spookiest place in America for Halloween specifically; and that it is even harder now that I live on the west coast. While in university I constantly tried to coax people into a weekend road trip to Salem.  I have been to Salem twice though now and I must admit I absolutely love that town. When I was sixteen I forced my family through a day in Salem, doing all the typical tourist things like the witches museum. The most horrifying thing I could force my boyfriend to do when we visited Salem at the ripe age of twenty-three was eat at Olive Garden (other thing I became minorly obsessed with growing up watching American feeds of TV) and walk around town looking for the iconic witch statue.

Another Halloween has passed and I am feeling a little disappointed in myself for letting this one go off the bucket list for another year. Maybe in 2014?

Sorry, it is a slow blog day and I am really trying to pump out two a day as required for work.

Here are some pre-weight loss photos from my second trip to Salem. If I can find some OG photos from my first trip when I get home I will add them. Also, apparently the sun was super bright that day so my eyes are squinty. 

Learning to Run (Again?)

Please feel free to sing the title of this blog in the style of the Foo Fighters, I sure am. 

Midday host Jenny Fines and I want to start running.

Okay, well Jenny Fines wants to start running. I want to just do a 5k and cross it off my bucket list. Before moving to the Kootenays I was in amazing shape. I went to the gym everyday and worked my butt off. Seriously, I was weight training 5 days a week (with minor cardio) and doing full cardio blasts twice a week. I was in training to get that 5k off my summer to do list.

But then I moved to BC and became a slight work addict, nixing my plans to run a 5k by the end of summer 2013. In the battle between spending half an hour working on my show prep or running, show prep will win every time. 

So, I am looking for you suggestions on getting into running. I am athletic, should I just run it and set the bar for myself that way or should I start a training regiment? To be clear, this is not about weight loss (I love my body) this is about putting one foot in front of the other foot over a distance that has been pre-determined and doing it in a timely fashion.

I have no desire to be a runner; I want to be able to say that I did it and wipe it clear off my bucket list. 

So what are your tips for breaking into the running scene? How much is too much to pay to run your first race? How much water should we bring? What is a good first finishing time? What is the best local 5k to run? Do I load up on carbs or cut them carbs before my first 5k?

I am a pretty healthy individual. I eat well; I live on a low carb diet (20g ish a day). I think I can run this cold without training, but I am still open to all suggestions and would consider giving it a few weeks of practice.

Here are some infographics I fully intend to read for advice: 

by hightable.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.