Occupational Wellness: Don’t Skip on that Cover Letter

I’ve done it – it’s not required in the job application so I’m just going to submit my resume and call it good. But just because a company doesn’t request a cover letter doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the time to write one. The cover letter is a place where you can set yourself far apart from the rest of your competition for the job you are applying for. It’s the place where you get to say exactly why you are the ideal candidate for the position and why you would be a great fit with the company. It’s the make or break. And as this article by Levo League points out, it also makes sure that you are serious about this job. That it’s actually a job that you want and that is worth putting the effort in to apply. Quality over quantity. 

If getting a new job in 2016 is on your list of Life Things To Do, check out the article and see how you set yourself apart from others.

Mental Wellness: Real Life vs. Virtual Life

Last May I was sitting in the waiting room of my mechanic’s shop waiting for my car to finish with an oil change and I saw this story. I clicked on the link and read through it and fought back tears in the waiting room. I got my car back and got back into the office and read the story again. And read it again. And about a dozen more times. I sent it to my boyfriend. A month later I went to the doctor to get blood work done as I was experiencing extreme fatigue. For the 2nd time in 6 months, I was so completely fatigued that I couldn’t stay awake past 7pm and everything exhausted my body and my mind. My blood work all came back normal and my doctor suggested that I go on anti-depressants because she believed that my fatigue was due to me being stressed out and depressed. I didn’t do it – I’ve always been against medication. I hate taking drugs. Not the point of the story. But the point of this personal story is that what is discussed in that article I linked is so extremely true. We look for so much validation in our life and social media makes it instant. It’s instant feedback and instant validation. For the person posting something. But for others, it’s just a scrolling highlight reel of everyone that you are friends with or follow.

This quote from the article has always resonated with me.

Yes, people filter their photos to make them prettier. People are also often encouraged to put filters on their sadness, to brighten their reality so as not to “drag down” those around them. The myth still exists that happiness is a choice, which perpetuates the notion of depression as weakness.

The myth still exists that happiness is a choice, which perpetuates the notion of depression as weakness. That quote forever rolls around in my head. Sometimes getting knocked back to just a memory and other times feeling fresh and right before my eyes. I have sat down in conversations where individuals talk about depression and that “it’s just so sad that people choose that life.” No one chooses to be depressed. No one wants to have those suffocating feelings of worthlessness. No one desires to live that kind of life. But yet, we hear stories like Madison’s and think, “why didn’t she just talk to someone? Why didn’t she just cheer up? How could anyone like that ever be depressed?”

There is no mold to fit for depression. And it’s not just something that you can just “snap out of”.

Many times I get irritated with people (to be fair I get irritated with people on many things) who believe that wellness is just eating healthy and working out. Yes, those are important parts to it. But your mental health…your mental health is so important. And there is never anything wrong with seeking help.

Although to be transparent, here I am a 28 year old educated individual (educated in psychology of all things) embarrassed and frustrated with the fact that a year ago a doctor told me that she thought I was depressed. And I decided to just run out my frustrations because seeking help was too expensive for my health care plan.

I’m not really sure why I’m publishing this – it’s not well written, it’s not anything ground breaking or new…but it’s raw and it’s me and it’s my feelings. The linked article is about Madison Holleran the U or Penn runner who committed suicide. It’s sad, it’s raw, it’s true, and it’s powerful. And if you have to read only one article, read that. Share it. Pass it on.

Financial Wellness: Finding a System that Works for You

A few years ago I wrote that I wanted to get my credit cards paid off and to do that I was going to track my expenses through Excel spreadsheets. I was able to keep up with that for a few months, until I got my credit cards paid off, and then I started utilizing my spreadsheet less and less. Mostly because I rarely open my computer when I’m at home. I sort of try to avoid using my computer seeing as I am in front of a computer day in and day out at work and my phone meets all my other needs. So my budgeting took a back burner. Then E and I moved in together and my expenses were cut down in half and I stopped being as vigilant with my budgeting. But because of that, I’ve lost sight of my goals (I planned on trying to get around $10k of my student loans paid off in this year when my expenses were so low) and haven’t made progress on them.

I’m trying something new this year – in my planner, I’m tracking what I’m spending every week and then adding it up on Sunday. I then put my total that I spent that week on my monthly calendar in my planner. I won’t be able to make up lost ground with my student loans but I’m hopefully that I can still make a bit more of a dent in my loans. It’s important to remember that it about making progress and not about being perfect. With your finances, your fitness, your work, and your life.

Occupational Wellness: Grow, Develop, Change.

I’ll be embarking on my first professional career change this year. E finishes up his PhD this spring and we’ll be moving out of Kansas. Because of this, I’ve started following a few career resources to help me through this process. I’ve been following these for a few weeks now and found them somewhat useful. There are some articles posted that you have to just take with a grain of salt (like an article about how someone paid off $80k of student debt making $30k per year…they got a second job to pay off their debt…so they weren’t making $30k per year). But others give good insight.

Levo is the first one. I’ve explained this as a more in depth LinkedIn. You can follow me here. Levo provides a strong social media presence (I can’t recommend following them on Instagram and Facebook enough) that marries career focused and personal articles very well. They provide tips, lists, and inspirational quotes.

Classy Career Girl is the second one. A co-worker of mine introduced me to this site but I didn’t start using it more until around the holidays. This site is similar to Levo but provides more resources for women navigating their career.

Do you have any resources that you recommend?

Physical Wellness: Harvest Half Series Recap

Before moving to Kansas, I had never heard of 39.3 challenges and before this year, there was just one in the local area in the Spring. I personally am not a fan of racing in the Spring but when I found out that there was going to be a 39.3 challenge in the Fall, I signed up immediately.

The Harvest Half is 3 half-marathons in 3 weeks (15 days from the first half to the last). You start off with the Kansas Half Marathon in Lawrence, Kansas, then move to the Gobbler Grind in Overland Park, Kansas, and finish with the Pilgrim Pacer in Shawnee, Kansas. I thought I would share my experience in case they do this series again.

If I were staying in the Kansas area, I would probably sign up for this series again because it was actually pretty fun. I finished the series with a total time 5:37:34. Overall, my stats… (based on the spreadsheet and based only on individuals that completed the entire series)

• 57/301 overall
• 9/173 female
• 2/23 age group

I PR-ed during this series and actually could have set a second PR but fell short.

Kansas Half-Marathon (1:53:57)

Dear god this race. I ran the most magnificent race up until 8 miles. I was in front of the 1:50 pace group and I was just absolutely cruising. I kept having this overwhelming feeling of … not good enough. I hadn’t trained at all for this series. I had a few long runs, I did some hill repeats, but honestly my training was a joke. I kept being amazed that I was ahead of the 1:50 group when I had thought I would be struggling to keep up with the 2:00 group. Between beating myself up mentally and then hitting the levee (the absolute worst part of this race) and then having my shoulder act up, I had to peel off and work out my shoulder. I ended up having to walk a bit as well. So I was pretty surprised that I was able to finish under 1:54.

Kansas Half-Marathon wins for best crowd participation and loses for worst course. Sorry, I hate the levee.

Gobbler Grind (1:51:28)

Well, spoiler alert, this is the race that I PR-ed. This race had a huuuuuge line for the bathrooms and I got to the finish line for just moments to spare. I quickly started the race and then impatiently stared at it as it couldn’t find location. The race was starting and my watch still hadn’t found location so I said fuck it and just decided to run blind. There is a girl that I know and I spotted her early on in the race. I thought, ok, I’m going to just try and stick with her as long as possible. She’s a far superior runner than I am so I thought if I could keep her in my sights for 5 miles or so, that would be awesome. We were a couple miles in and I was feeling pretty good so I decided to put my blinders on and just run. I knew that the course was go around a big circle, then go straight, go around a big circle, then go straight to the finish line. So I kept that in mind while I was running (I’m a “chunk it up” type of runner). At one point in time I started getting worried that I took a wrong turn and ended up running with the marathoners and not the half-marathoners. But I didn’t. I also didn’t see the girl I know (turns out she was tapering for a marathon) or any pacers. Around mile 11, I saw the 1:50 pacer pass me and I fought like hell to keep up with him. But I wasn’t able to. So I fell back a bit. Then around mile 12 I saw the 2nd 1:50 pacer and I tried keeping up with her. I was able to keep them in my sights but they were too unattainable for me. I sprinted to the finish line and glanced up at the clock…I thought…maybe just maybe I PR-ed. I walked around and found the results booth and found out that indeed I did PR!

Gobbler Grind wins for best course and loses for shirt. A brown long sleeve shirt that was sized very small and immediately ended up in my donation pile.

Pilgrim Pacer (1:52:09)

This race. Oh this race. They had a shuttles picking up everyone. I ended up in the wrong parking lot and figured it out eventually, got parked, waited in line, got to the packet pick-up and learned that they weren’t going to have enough medals for everyone and some were going to have to have theirs mailed, the “secured drop bag” area was just bags thrown in a corner, and it was windy. And cold. There were no pacers for this race so I got where I thought I should be and waited. And waited. And waited. They ended up delaying the start of the race since the shuttles weren’t running as quickly as expected. The race finally started. I knew that it was an out and back so what I was seeing now, I would be seeing on my way back. Unfortunately, that meant 2 miles of hills, going up, on the way back. I tried to ignore it and concentrate on chunk 1 – which was seeing my sister. My sister lives in the area and came out to support me. I saw her and ran up to her and gave her dog, Molly, some pets. Spent about 10-15 seconds doing that. Didn’t regret it. Molly loved it. Then took off to get to the turn around point. I got there and took off – this was the place to make up time because it was all downhill. I got back to the park where my sister and Molly were at and didn’t stop this time. I felt it in me, I was going to get that PR. But yet again, after I hit mile 10, I fell apart. This time my calves were on fire and my mental game was thinking about those 2 uphill miles. I ended up peeling off to massage my calves and walk for a bit. And with it I said so long to my new PR.

Pilgrim Pacer wins for best shirt and loses for organization of race.

Mile 90 photographed the Kansas Half and Pilgrim Pacer. They do amazing work and let you download the photos for free.

It was a great experience – 7/10 would recommend for a good challenge but also some fairly irritating aspects to the series (logistical stuff). If I did this series again, I would need to train better. All 3 races I felt great and was ahead of the 1:50 pace but fell apart at the end. I imagine that me falling apart is mostly due to the fact that I just didn’t put the miles in for training. It also makes me wonder…if I actually trained, is a 1:45 half in reach???

Giveaway! ENERGYBits

A few weeks ago, ENERGYBits contacted me to see if I was interested in receiving a sample of their product. I agreed and offered to do a review of their product on their blog. I had heard good things about EnergyBits so needless to say, I was excited for the opportunity. I received the sample and it took me a week to even try them. I don’t have a sensitive stomach, but I was worried about trying something new on a long run and it not sitting with me well or that if I used the EnergyBits during one of my evening workouts, I would be up all night like I am when I consume caffeine. But Monday evening came around I needed to some serious energy to get me through a grueling speed workout. Since I only ran 7 miles on Sunday, I decided to push and do 6 miles of speed work. By the time I got home from work on Monday, I wanted to crawl into bed and not hit the track. So I decided to try the ENERGYBits and see how they worked.

And wow. I felt great and usually I’m dragging myself off the track. I didn’t feel like I rapidly hit an energy high and I didn’t feel like I crashed after the energy either. I felt steady during my entire track workout. I’m not sure how long the energy lasted because like I said there was clear energy high or low. One thing that I will have to continue to test out is how I sleep after taking the ENERGYBits. This was my first try with them but my sleep was restless. I was also dehydrated. So it could have been that.

Here is basic information about ENERGYBits:  Based in Boston. Protein. Steady energy w/o sugar, caffeine, chemicals, etc. Just one ingredient – 100% organically grown spirulina algae. ENERGYbits are only available at ENERGYbits.com, and Jonathan (their Community Manager) has let me know that he’d be happy to share more info on their sample program – you can email him at jlevitt@energybits.com BUT in addition to that, he is offering a special giveaway to my readers! Giveaway will be open until August 20!

 All opinions are my own. To enter the giveaway, click the link below! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Update.

I’m slowing finding my groove again. Such is life of an amateur blogger. Grab a cup of coffee and let’s catch up, shall we?

Marathon training officially started June 1. This is the easy part. These are the workouts that I already know and love. The hard part comes in July and August when the runs start getting to be actual long run and the temperatures plus the humidity (thanks a lot Kansas) start to increase. It’s not going to be a picnic, who said your first marathon ever was?

I transitioned into a new role at work. It’s terrifying. And exciting. But mostly terrifying. I started getting used to people not expecting anything out of me and now I’m in on important meetings and doing work that no one else in the office does and drafting proposals…it’s definitely been a struggle and one that has played out here on my blog of feeling confident enough to do this work.

Work has been a struggle for me. Beyond in the actual work. It starts to wear on you when you hear people talking about you “behind your back” and begins to get to you. As much as I tried not to let the negative words effect me, I am one the broods on the negativity and I was soon sucked into it. I let the words repeat over and over again in my head…as much as people outside would tell me not to worry about it and to forget about it, I had a difficult time forgetting.

I deactivated my Facebook. I needed the break from that specific form of social media that is constant highlight reel upon highlight reel. I’ll admit, I compare myself in almost every aspect of my life to almost every person in my life. I’m insanely competitive. The highlight reels plus the onslaught of baby pictures plus the slew of misinformation that people post thinking it to be honest and real…let’s just say, I don’t need any help in the being a cynical 26 year old department and Facebook was helping me a little too much. So instead of whining about it endlessly, I just deactivated it. This isn’t the first time that I have done this, but this is the longest I have gone without it and I don’t see myself returning anytime soon.

I’m starting to feel pressure to pursue a PhD. But at the same time, I don’t know why I would ever do that. But maybe…

There’s a comment section right below here…catch me up on what’s been happening in your life. And let’s see if we can’t get some structure and schedule back to the good ole blog, shall we?

Oh and one quick edit, after being on this blog for over a year, I finally decided to make the commitment and spend the $26 to purchase my domain. This is now wellnessblogging.com, feel free to update your bookmarks 🙂

Passion.

I’m sure my regular readers will have noticed a large gap in my posting schedule. Today marks my one year anniversary of starting this blog. I started it with purpose, with passion. I loved wellness and everything about it. Those that have been reading for the past few months my sporadic posts know that it has been a struggle determining the direction I want to take with with this blog or even if I want to keep it around.

I keep reading articles and seeing things that get me excited to post but never post them. I feel like I’m slacking at blogging, slacking at consulting, slacking at living a wellness lifestyle. Why would anyone want to take my tips or read articles I think are worthwhile if I can’t even practice what I preach? It’s a struggle. It feels like a struggle that is reoccurring, just a different topic. I keep living my life with the “when x happens then y” mentality and it’s not healthy because x never happens or is constantly changing. They use this analogy w/ people wanting to lose weight. They say once I reach my “goal weight” then life happens but the “goal weight” is never the goal weight. It has nothing to do with the weight. It’s in your mind. You think that getting to x will all of a sudden make y appear but that’s not how things work, that’s not how life works. It’s not a simple when x then y equation.

My director was talking to me the other day and asked me what I want to do with my life. 26 years old and I have no idea. I have forgotten where my passions lie. Forgotten what compels me to wake up in the morning besides an alarm clock and a schedule. I spend most Sundays locked in my apartment, shades drawn, binging and ignoring the world instead of embracing the world and being in it. I’m not depressed, I’m lost. Which is fine when you are 18 years old. But I’m 26. My time for being lost is over.

I’m Still Around.

I’m still around.

I’m still bookmarking articles to review.

I’m still wanting to blog here. 

I’m just feeling uninspired. I’m feeling a drift from the wellness field and perhaps it’s what happens when you get out of a field for a number of years with no hint of getting back into the field. Perhaps it’s being around people who don’t necessarily care that much about wellness or think of it as a joke. 

Perhaps it is more of a realization that wellness may never be a career for me and may only just be a hobby and I need a bit of time to let that sink in. I don’t feel like I have been posting quality blogs lately. And I don’t think it is fair just to post for the sake of posting. I feel like I need to make more time and more of an effort in posting quality over quantity. That might call for a bit of a change in blogging schedule. 

But just know, I’m still here and I still want to be here. 

Weekend Bonus Post.

I’m a competitive person. I always have been. I’m competitive in every aspect of my life, from physical to mental to financial to everything else in between. I constantly compare myself to every single person in my quest to be better. Am I smaller? Do I have more money? Am I faster? Am I prettier? Am I more intelligent? Am I happier? 

But I constantly keep having these revelations as I think of my friends and how they are complaining that they don’t have certain things in their life. 

We can’t compare our lives. Because everyone has something that we want and we have something that some else wants. Plus there is no formula for happiness. Having kids won’t necessarily make you happy. Getting married won’t necessarily make you happy. Having a shit ton of money, being skinny, having a high IQ, having a high status job, traveling the world…all of these things won’t necessarily make you a happy person. 

So why do we keep comparing ourselves and our happiness levels to other people? Especially when the majority of people are presenting the best version of themselves to the world and not their true version. Because the fact is that we are not happy all the time. So is it really worthwhile to be so competitive?