Nothing Good After Midnight; Nothing Bad After 4:30am

I am crazy. I have these weird hours of bed before 9 or 10pm and waking up (usually) never later than 6am. Both of these times include weekends! My husband thinks I'm crazy, too. At night he'll say, "What? I haven't even eaten dinner yet!" And on the weekends he'll say, "Just sleep in! Try to not get up the second your eyes open." But it never fails, to bed I go and an early riser I am!

I have always been this way. This isn't anything new. However, what is new (in the past year or so) is this idea that I can workout beginning at 4:30am. My body lets me. As a matter of fact, my body thanks me for it!

I have now become addicted to it! I wake up, have a cup of coffee and workout. In the summer I'll head outside and run or go to the gym out by where we live. In the winter (now) I head to the Club I work at and workout or do my P90X at home. I'm always energized by 3 main things:

1. A little coffee
2. My passion for fitness
3. The idea that the day is just beginning and the opportunities are endless

That positive energy turns into a strong workout (on most days). In turn, that strong workout has me feeling wonderful going into each and every day. It gives me the confidence I need and the sense of accomplishment in the earliest hours of my day.

My Mother used to say, "Nothing good ever happens after midnight." She was right, except that she forgot to tell me that if I can create a habit of getting up, working out and taking care of me first thing in my day that "nothing bad will happen after 4:30am!"

And here I am again...Thursday, January 14, 2010 - 4:33am - awake - about to brew my coffee and appreciate a strong workout of P90X Kenpo X! Cheers!

if better is possible - good is not enough

I found a Nike Blog post in July stating that they were looking for "Nike+ 10K Human Race Ambassdor's."

It sounded like fun to me. I applied on July 30th. The first two sentences of my email stated,

Choose me to be one of your Nike Ambassadors!
I promise to make Nike proud!

On August 3rd, just days after, I received an email from Nike. Their first two sentences were,

Congratulations! You have been selected to be a
Nike+ Human Race Ambassador.

Life has not been the same since! I have a quote that says, "if better is possible - good is not enough." This quote should have been my Human Race Ambassador Motto; I am now certain of that.

From August - October 24, 2009, I would habitually wake up everyday at 4:30am. I would check my email and respond to new or existing Pied Pipers. I would then head to my favorite coffee shop to "strategize, plot and plan" until about 6am. At 6am I would hit the gym to run and/or lift weights. (Since I was asking my team to run and then run some more, I felt it was nothing less than absolutely essential for me to be doing the same. I believe: Leadership does not exist without the leader doing as they wish to have done.) I would get home around 7:30am, at which point I would check more emails, shower and head to work. I would work my regular, full-time job, from about 8:30-5pm, fight traffic and get home. The rest of each and every night was devoted to the recruitment, development, inspiration, motivation and Social Media Marketing for the Nike+ Human Race promotion and the Pied Piper Team I worked so hard for!

And then on October 25, 2009 it was over. I had given the "run" everything I had. My only hope and wish at that point was that the team I had built enjoyed it all, ran their hearts out and (mostly) respected, appreciated and were (even more than before) motivated by not only Nike+ & the Nike+ Challenges but also by me, Sarah Kay Hoffman!

On October 29, 2009 it was announced that my team, Team Pied Piper, had WON the Nike Human Race Ambassador's Challenge!

Here is what they did during that short amount of time:

• Built my Pied Piper Facebook Fan Page to 723 Fans
• Grew to a team of 1,039
  
• Ran 114,390 miles (whew!)

In addition, the Pied Pipers had the most people sync their 10K runs on 10.24.2009. Mission was 100% accomplished! THANK YOU!

The Nike+ Human Race might be over, but I still believe...."if better is possible - good is not enough." I found my Passion in recruiting, developing, inspiring, motivating, leading through Social Media Marketing and through this wonderful (and yet crazy) Virtual-osity. I am not ready for it to be over. I am not ready to stop doing what I love so much! I can't wait to help the next person and/or company get from HERE to THERE! I can't wait to watch myself get from HERE to THERE!

Thank you, Nike (for the opportunity)!
Thank you, Pied Pipers (for having Passion and spreading that Passion)!
Thank you, Ryan (my husband who didn't see me for 3 months, for supporting me)!

Tonight I'm just simply thankful.

Tomorrow morning, I'll just simply be thankful for my coffee and the opportunity to "strategize, plot and plan" my next endeavor!

While Visions of Coffee Danced in My Head

Day 69.

Bright and early, 7:30am on a Saturday morning! I am awake and loving life so much already today. The sun is out. It's going to be a gorgeous day today with temperatures in the 90's. And all is (still) calm in our house. Fiona is laying on my lap, Reagan is sleeping in her Crate and Ryan is asleep as well! My perfect, simple life!

I am working tonight, as we are celebrating the 20-year anniversary of our Club. In honor of this big night, we are unveiling brand new outdoor signs, a newly-painted building and a brand new website. The website is my favorite. We had designers on the East Coast that were the behind-the-scenes, but we put together and created all of the content. It's a huge job, but the final product makes me know it was worth it. You can see it here.

Last night I think I dreamed about coffee. Actually, I know I dreamed about coffee; I had visions of Coffee dancing in my head! Brace yourself for what I'm about to tell you - today, I will have a Soy Latte at Baristas! Today, like every Saturday morning, we will go to Baristas. But I have not been able to have the thing I love the most there in a couple of months - their Soy Lattes, since I reacted to soy. But today is the day I get to try soy out again. Leah said, '"I think "testing" soy would be fine! The more we know the more we learn. This will only give us more information."' She is a smart woman! I reacted very minimal to soy. I'm hoping that it's one thing I'll eventually be able to have again at some point occasionally.

Baristas makes a Soy Latte like none other you've ever had before! And yes, this is what their latte looks like. They bring a different approach to foaming the soy. I believe it's a European approach. It almost tastes like a thicker version of whip cream. Unbelievable!



I will definitely report back as to how it made me feel.

I had a fairly good day again yesterday. My mouth was excellent again! Wohooo! It was probably at a 0/1 all day. I did notice before I went to bed last night that I had 2 red dots on my inside cheeks. I've described this before in a past posting. Anyways, I'm not sure at what point in the day they showed up? Nothing was really different yesterday for what I ate (from the day before) except that I had a little Red Wine and some Walnuts (which I don't usually have Walnuts everyday). We'll see how my mouth does today! My stomach definitely got icky after lunch sometime. It was not normal until I got sick around 7:30pm. I have been fine ever since. Again, Detox starts on Monday, so we'll see if that helps to alleviate this problem!

I won't be able to report anything else today, as I'll be gone all afternoon and night for our 20th Celebration!

Cheers to a beautiful Saturday in Northern California! We are so very blessed.