My @$$ is on fire and my eyelashes are frozen

I think I just might have come up with the most interesting title of my blog to date. Now, how to explain it.

I'll start with the first part. Here's the deal, lately, I've been dreaming bigger. I'm not sure what the fuel is (well I have some ideas), but it's been happening. Little things just keep happening that are pushing me in a certain direction and I want to get out there, personally, and professionally.

For example, yesterday I decided that as a dietitian I want to start honing my media skills and forming relationships with those in media to provide a streamlined and accurate message to the public. I'm not sure exactly what this means yet, but I know that this is something I can do if I put some focus to it. I started off by contacting our local paper and letting them know that I was a registered dietitian in the area, and that I would be available to pitch stories, provide quotes and resources, and be interviewed on certain topics. They already replied..wow..holy cow, I guess I have to really do this now.

In addition, I've decided I would like to become more skilled in sports nutrition and would like to attend some conferences this year to support this area of my professional repertoire. I don't have a ton of time, but I think it's important, and I'm going to do it. Eventually, I would like to start doing more nutrition counseling and my clients will be well versed in the area of nutrition as athletes. If this is the case, I've got to up my game from the local talks I've been giving to different teams. I need to create new materials and get a solid presentation together.

Lastly in professional area, wellness has now become a huge area among corporations. I will be attending another speakers talk on this issue later in the month and I am excited to see how she incorporate wellness with the ultimate goal of decreasing health care costs for the company. Better eating habits, more exercises, less stress = lower health care bills for the company, and that's just the facts.

On the personal side, Kyle and I are going to begin working on the Hawaii video (so excited, we have over 10 hours of footage so there is muchos work to be done). We will be putting it to music and voice over and I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm working with someone on a website which I suspect will be up by April or May at the latest. Finally, I've got to start working on my motivational speaking/nutrition talks to both kids and adults. I want to get some presentations developed that can be used all over the country. Finding some causes and things to help out with while I'm doing that will be important as well. I can't let all my secrets/ideas out yet, but I have some and it's really fun to be thinking about how I can help others while doing something I love (aka triathlon) at this stage of the game.

So, I guess you could say the fire is burning, it's the beginning of the year and I had better start writing down some goals and then breaking it down into action steps or this is going to get out of hand. Sometimes I bite of more than I can chew (can you tell!!) so I only have to do all this while working 40 hours a week and training. If it's important though, it can be done.

In the area of eyelashes, it was DANG COLD this morning. I biked for an hour on the trainer, and jammed out to my new favorite song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UX0p7uAW2s

and then I ran for 40 minutes outside. Forty minutes is usually a walk in the park, but when it's below zero, it becomes a different animal. I wore a face mask, but it was so cold it started to freeze in the shape of my face. The hot air from my breath combined with the sweat dripping from my forehead condensed on my eyelashes making little balls of ice. I've never had that happen before and I kept blinking thinking they would come off but they didn't! I wanted to take a picture but I couldn't find my camera in time, they melted within minutes of being inside! It was crazy!

Tonight - swimming with the "age group" crew at Clarion University. I'm a bit scared, ok..not really, they can't be that fast right??! I am more excited to swim with other people who like to actually swim and not have kids hit me with noodles in a 86 degree pool. That HAS to help my swimming cause which has been stinking it up since I stopped training for Ironman! Wish me luck!