It's Friiiiidaaaayyyy!!! Which means another installment of my Fun Fact Friday. Remember last week's? I stumped a lot of you good (like my grammar ;)). Let's see who all can guess this week's Fun Fact Friday correctly. Remember - only one of the below is a true fact about me. Which one is it???

1. The only way I like to eat fish is raw aka in sushi form. I don't even care for cooked sushi.
2. Sounds gross, but my favorite pizza is pizza from the chain Papa John's. It beats ALL kinds.

So, post which you think is correct 😀

Okay, onto the rest of today. First of all, I want to say WOW to all the comments from yesterday's post. It is amazing how many of us battle or have battled with feeling guilty for missing a workout.  I hope that we all can support each other through this fabulous blogging community to have healthy mindsets and focus on the great lifestyles we live. I know it's all too easy to try to compare ourselves to others, when in reality all we should be doing is lifting up one another on making the best out of our lives. Which includes letting other parts of our lives take the forefront of workouts, how things should be. Or just enjoying  pure laziness. Like last night. Keeping with the "no guilt" theme, the hubs and I ended up skipping the gym and chilling together as a family since neither of us were in the mood for it. 😉 And I didn't gain 10 lbs from it! Yay! *please note the sarcasm - in fact I have no clue how much I weigh since I haven't stepped on a scale in months and don't care to know either - another post for another day*

Anyways....

Today has been eventful and will continue to be. I woke up this morning early, had my quiet time with the big man upstairs, caught up on blogs/comments/emails, and then got the Mster and myself ready for our Mommy Group visit. We went to an indoor playground today and there were a lot more women from the group there this time. So, it was a great time. I am really really loving what this group has to offer. And quite a few of the moms have kids M's age. Mostly boys. She was a flirt. Even though you might not be able to tell from this picture:

the rare fussy M

Ha! And oh. I almost cracked up because one mom asked me how I found the group and I told her through Google. It made me laugh because funny story - I live in Cumming, GA. So when I googled Moms of Cumming (which is what I thought I remembered the name of the group being from a flyer I got a couple months ago), it was scary. Do not google that. You put the two together. Yea. Ewww. What a lovely place to live, no? Especially when the local Cumming BJ's likes to have Huge Blowout Sales. No joke. Big sign with that one last year. Alright, enough crudeness.

After the mom group, I came home and put M down for a nap so I could shower and get ready for the wedding rehearsal dinner we have to go to tonight. We're going to a restaurant in downtown Atlanta called Social. Check it out here. Looks interesting 🙂 I wanted to give you a preview snapshot to tide you over until I can get official updates of the evening and this is what I got:

stop taking shots! your vision is blurry!!!

Please excuse the fact that I am blonde special and didn't think to take the picture on timer and instead went to the only full mirrors we have to take it. Those mirrors are grungy because they are in the basement in my workout area (see the cool step and mini TV in the background which is soooo fancy old school). But, hey, you get the point. And you can see the measly point and shoot camera I have to use. Once again, wish list = new nice  camera! So it can better capture beauties like this...

doll

...and this...

leftover oat chicken tenders in gigantic salad

That's last night's dinner, which was uh-mazing! Spinach & spring mix with cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, leftover oaty chicken tenders, and light caesar dressing. Mmmmm...

Ok. Time to get some lunch in my belly, pack up some things for M's stay at Nana & Papa's tonight, and head on out. I'll catch up with all you fab gals (and guys) later!

PS - Check out this giveaway at Jasmine's blog Sweet & Fit! 🙂

Before I get to the title of my post, I want to do a quick recap of how my day is going. It has been a pretty low-key one. I, of course, spent a good bit of time hanging out with this gorgeous girl...

And also did some reading. I finished this book...

Weight of Silence

And what is a finished book without a review for those of you who enjoy reading. The story is about  two little girls that go missing one day and how the day unfolds. Each chapter is from a different character's perspective, which makes it very interesting. In all honesty, not a lot happened and I expected it to be more of a mystery and suspenseful novel. Despite all that, I could not could not could not put this book down. It kept me wanting to see what would happen next and learn more about the characters. The story was pretty emotional and the stories of each character are very intriguing. I give it 4/5 🙂

The remainder of the day will consist of heading to the gym for a full body workout and some cardio. While planning out my workout for today, I realized that I will not be able to do my usual Friday workout tomorrow as I have a Mom Group visit in the morning and then have to get prettified and head out for a wedding rehearsal dinner in the afternoon. I took yesterday off, per the usual of my 5 day workout schedule, and when considering that I began to feel a pang of guilt. I could have still gotten in 5 workouts this week if I planned ahead. Well, I quickly got over it because my only focus right now is to live a healthy lifestyle and 4 days of workouts in a week is still pretty darn good if you ask me. However, that quick pang did get me thinking. How many of us women who aspire to be fit and healthy feel guilt over a missed workout?

I know in the past I would flip out over a messed up workout schedule. I felt like was failing and would ruin all of my progress by not staying on plan. Years ago, I would push myself to work out every day for at least 1.5 hours/day. What results did that get me? Honestly, nothing because of other negative things going on in my mind and a very bad (binge) relationship with food. But that's a whole other topic 😉 Today I was sick to my stomach remembering that time of my life. I was not a happy person and putting so much emphasis on fitness ended up with me not even being fit and healthy. How is it healthy to participate in negative self talk because of not making it to the gym or on that run? How healthy is it to push yourself to do something and ignore an injury, an obligation to someone/something you care about, or your body's need to rest?

What does it mean to live a healthy lifestyle? In my opinion, a healthy lifestyle is one that is balanced. It is about physical health, but also (and more importantly) it is about mental and emotional health. What benefit can guilt possibly have? I see it causing unnecessary stress and anxiety. I see it making a fit lifestyle unenjoyable because who wants to workout to avoid feeling guilty? Where's the fun in that?! I see it keeping someone from getting the adequate amount of rest needed for proper muscle recovery. I see it as something that will keep a person from spending time with friends and loved ones because they have to get that workout in. I see it hindering emotional ties because the life of the person revolves around being 'perfect' with food and training. I've been there and lived it.

If you never missed a workout and never felt guilty because you were always 100% on your game plan, I don't think I would envy you that. Things happen and can get in the way - through illness, other obligations, exhaustion, different opportunities, etc - that it is basically impossible for someone to NEVER miss a workout. It's called life and I don't know about you, but I like having one outside of the gym. By no means am I saying that being disciplined is a negative thing. It is, in fact, a very admirable thing and something we should all strive for. The difference is in how we react when things don't go our way and part of our plan doesn't get to happen. Do we make the best of it, adjust if possible, and move on? Or do we dwell, sulk, feel poorly about ourselves, and think we have failed? I think we MUST look at our week/month/year as a whole and how our lifestyle is. If you can say that you exercise regularly, then there should be no hard feelings for taking a day, a few days, a few weeks if needed off. Guilt won't get you anywhere in the long run. So take pride in being fit and healthy...which means having no guilt and smiling because you make the best out of your LIFE and not just your workouts. 🙂

Do you feel guilty when you miss a workout? How do you overcome it?