How I find motivation for running

      In this whirlpool of private experiences and philosophical thoughts, this will be something different, more lightweight. 

Sports is my passion - running, volleyball, cycling, badminton, you name it. However, I do it not just because I can. I have my goals and I work hard to achieve them, but this is the tricky part. This is where laziness comes in. I like to share my progress in social media and the response I usually get was my major inspiration to write this post. 

When I share my workout results, sometimes people leave a comment or message me saying they wish they were as motivated as I am. First of all, let's make this clear - my motivation is not a given. Just like everybody else, I have my lazy days and dozens of silly excuses in my head (it's too windy, the park might be too crowded, I have a lecture in five hours etc.). I am always on a hunt for good motivational quotes and tips and over the last couple of years I have developed a coping strategy for my laziness when it comes to sports (to tell you the truth, it's not 100% per-cent effective and will never be - after all I'm a human, not a robot).

So, here's some tips and tricks that help me stay motivated.

1. Set a goal. It can be absolutely anything from fitting into your favourite jeans that became too tight to a thigh gap, toned arms or a flat stomach. This is probably not news for you, but it really matters. However, it didn't work well for me on its own, so here's another tip from me - buy an item of clothing that will not be flattering unless you reach your goal. For example, my goal is to have a flat stomach until the middle of June, so I bought this beautiful crop top. I promised myself that even if I don't get a flat stomach, I will have to wear it at least once in June. So now, when I am all cozy in bed and I want to stay there the whole day, that's what I tell myself. Trust me, it works!

2. Earn your shopping day. I discovered this tip only a couple months ago and now I don't even know what I would do without it. I'm sure everyone knows the feeling when you see something you really like but it costs so much you would feel guilty if you bought it. So earn it! Set up a cute little jar and put some money in it after each workout. However, it is very easy to cheat here, so I would recommend to define what a "workout" is (is 20 crunches same as a 5k run?). For example, I put 10SEK (around 1€) for each workout that is no less than 25 minutes long. This has two major outcomes - you don't waste money on expensive things you don't need and it's a big pleasure to buy an expensive item you worked so hard for. 

3. Find a gym buddy. This is probably the hardest thing to do. I haven't found people motivated enough to run with me at least a couple times a week. Also, making a running schedule can be really complicated if you're both busy. However, now I know what it feels like to have a gym buddy and it's magical, especially on days when you feel really lazy. You just get up and do it, knowing that someone is counting on you. This one helped me even in my darkest times.

4. Find some motivational quotes that make you want to do a workout. These might be really cheesy, but there's something in them that gets me out of bed and into my running shoes. They're very personal and what works for me might not work for you. I usually find them on WeHeartIt. Here are some of my favourites at the moment:

And (surprise surprise) Ryan Gosling

So, that is all I have to share with you for now. Writing this type of blog posts is new for me, but I enjoyed it. If you would like me to talk more about sports, workouts and my lifestyle, let me know and I'll see what I can do :)

Beautiful as we are (II) : too beautiful to be smart?

This post has been in my blog as a draft for nearly five months by now, and there are so many things unsaid that I don't really know how to say. A few days ago I came across an article that did what I seemingly cannot. It viewed gender inequality in the job market objectively.
I don't have many front-row experiences of when a woman was denied a high position because of her appearance. However, I have minor stories, and I believe that they plant the very same seed in young and perspective women that grows to prevent them from high positions in their fields of expertise.
Compliments, when spoken out, have to be differentiated. Not all of them seek to flatter.
"What do you know about struggles for recognition, you are pretty and it's way easier for you" - I have been addressed one of these as well.
"I will shed all of this skin down to the very bone beneath it if that's what it will take for you to come to the realization that appearance is not what makes a human beautiful" - this quote basically says all I think of it better than I ever could put it in my own words (I've posted it in one of my older blog posts).
Beauty is a 'given' and intelligence is an 'achieved'. Why is it so hard for some people to see the distinction?
Self-confidence is not a 'given' as well, and not only the 'ugly' ones lack it. Many girls stay in lower positions, never daring to think of having more power and, instead, leaving it either to the 'hungry for power' women (in their opinion) or men. They keep all their ideas in and stay in low positions with their mouths shut.
A lot of damage has been done for the physically beautiful, but I won't blame men. Some things are done just because things 'have always been like this'. We all do it - through advertising, media, movies. Music videos are not even worth mentioning in this case, I guess - some of them are the perfect demonstration of beautiful women doing silly things and exposing themselves to be recognised. We need to make them realize - everybody has the equal and basic right to...be intelligent. There's just no other way to say it, really.

Here's a video from #LikeAGirl campaign that majorly inspired me to get back to this post:

The situation is starting to get better with Emma Watson and other famous women speaking out about gender inequality, but the change is slow and will take a lot of time to spread worldwide.

From freedom to slavery

Recently, my all inner world was constantly pondering women's situation in their family context, considering only women from post-soviet countries, such as Baltic States, Balkan region and the rest of Eastern Europe. This blog post has spent over three weeks in 'draft' section, because I kept hoping I will arrive in some kind of a conclusion. Nevertheless, this question stays open and doesn't leave my mind. Maybe because I can't find the nerve to keep searching for an answer even though I'm interested in the idea of finding it. What puts me down the most is the absolute downfall of the idea of two young people being desperately in love with each other and willing to do anything for each other. It seems like something that can only happen if the society ceases to remain humane.

So what I've been pondering is women taking up the role of a husband-slave, or, worse, a family-slave. As this post-soviet period was not too long ago, this is still to to be seen in the environment of where I am from. I find it impossible for myself to understand why women choose to not change it and not do anything to make it stop. The majority of middle-aged and old men of this generation seem to be very fond of consuming enormous amounts of alcohol, especially vodka. This leads to alcohol addiction. These men not only disrespect their children, but usually as well humiliate their wives,and spend most of their family's money on alcohol. There are also cases when women take up this role, I'm not a sexist, but most often it IS men. What adds to never ending family quarrels, women having to earn money for the whole family and look after the children and the household, and men showing their children the worst family life example possible, is quite often physical violence, humiliation of women in front of their children, or even sexual violence within the family.

It is, of course, terrible and hard to perceive as something that is still happening in our modern society, but what worries me the most is how women accept it as something 'natural' (it's hard to even use this word in a context like this) and do nothing to change it. It might, of course, be so because of never ending hope that one day it will change without doing anything, or fear of big changes, or maybe even taking children away from their father, but if you think about it.. This is a change for good, and it is also a good thing to do regarding children's wealth. When you think about it, women's fear to escape is the only power supply for this kind of men. They have power over someone, they are given money, they have someone to clean for them, and cook for them. They have a servant. But only if women in this situation treat themselves as servants. But the truth is, everyone's free, regardless of their gender, marital status or number of children. It isn't a choice to make, it isn't even a choice of whether to make this change or not. However, the problem is - wait, there is no problem. And then, after choosing to be repressed instead of being free, women think they have the right to get offended by the usage of term 'women logic'.

The only thing I am sure of after thinking over it and writing it down is that I will be relieved if this won't become a tradition. The idea of free and open-minded society is taking over my generation, and it looks like we will have to be the ones to give it a form and make it a tradition, something to pass on to other generations as a model of general wealth. We will have to be the ones to resist the bad example we have been shown, take up the good bits from the exceptions in it and create something new for ourselves to make our lives better. To cheer you up, I think we will do just fine :)

Emi is thinking about life, love and existence

Let me just begin by saying it's in no way a recommendation, because most people I offer to watch this tell me it's crap, I am just spilling my thoughts into a virtual space. So there's this movie I can't get enough of. It's called 'Mister Nobody'. The name of it is far from catchy. The actors, however, are insanely good and Jared Leto is doing perfectly well there as always. On the other hand, it's too long as a mindfuck type of movie, so not everyone can last till the end of it. It's also weird as hell, I thought the same thing after watching that once. But it's a kind of movie that takes more than one time to watch in order to understand it. However, I do not know any single person except myself who is willing to watch this 3-hour movie more than twice. Ain't nobody have time for that.. However, after I watched it I got really curious about things I did not understand there. To get most of it took me about 4 times. But still, I keep watching different parts of it again and again. It changes everything. Before I found it, I would have never believed a movie can contain more and cause more thoughts about life, existence and love than any lecture I can possibly have or book I ever read in my life. When I watch it for a minute or two, all those thoughts are reborn and alive in my head, and I must add that it's addictive. I want to think more about it, feel this infinity of space and have this idea of everything being not real. Thinking about love from a different perspective than that of girly movies or romance comedies. Imagining all people being a huge 7 billion pixel screen and not being able to see myself in there, when everyone around me is telling I can change the world.
Every person sooner or later finds his way of feeling this. It might be a once-in-a-lifetime feeling, but it might become an addiction. Well, this was mine.

/Emi

Sports challenges

So, as I wrote before, I am currently working on two sports challenges: squats and crunches.
To be honest, I have dropped the squat challenge and settled at the number of 50-100 squats a day, depending on how I feel and how much I run. One more thing: starting from the 1st of June, until the 18th of June when I will be going home, I promised myself I'll go running every single day, no matter the weather. So far, I have only been running 3.5 kilometers a day, but I am seriously planning on coming back to 5 kilometers in a couple of days. So, this is the main reason why I quit squatting to the schedule - when I had to do 160 and even more, it got too much, so my legs would shake and the muscles would get extremely tense when I was running. Anyways, even though it is not so intense anymore, I haven't given it up :)
About the crunches: I just did 115 and that looks really good so far. The number is still growing day by day, but since my legs have nothing to do with it, I have no right to complain :)

So, to sum up, my daily routine has to do a lot with sports. It has gotten pretty intense lately, and takes quite a lot of time by the way, but, since I can see the summer at home coming, it keeps me motivated and happy :)

My motivational desktop background

So, this is what's on my desktop right now. I made this when I started doing the challenges, so that I don't have to look for them everyday in my photo gallery. What is more, there were enough space for Ryan Gosling to sneak in and take half of the space there. It's not that I am a no.1 fan of him, but I just looove this picture. It really does motivate.

Doing my abs (crunches)

So, besides starting the squats challenge, I also started another one. This time, crunches. So far, I have been doing it for 13 days as well, but it is not as difficult as squatting. Firstly, the numbers aren't that big, and, secondly, I have worked hard on my abs before, by doing a challenge that involved doing 100 of them in one go, everyday, for two weeks. So, the fact that I'll have to do 90 of them today doesn't look so scary. Even if you do not have any experience in this, but you want to get started right off, I suggest that you take this. However, if you want a smooth start, I can upload a lot of different workout plans :) So, I'll get back to this when it overcomes 100.

Sports challenges: keep it low (squats)

So, as I mentioned before, I've been trying quite hard to get fitter and improve my physical state, or, in other words, to get ready for the summer. I have found a lot of tips and tricks on the internet, which also involved different kinds of sports challenges. So, I found a series of those monthly challenges. They contain only one kind of exercise, but as you move on with it, you have to do more and more of it. So, although it's recommended to take only one of them at a time, I started off with two, and I am going to comment gradually on how I am doing with both of them. The one I begin with is the monthly squat challenge. I have been squatting for 13 days now, and I really feel it's getting very difficult. It's been 130 squats in one go for today. Quite a workout actually.