Trufit Pilates

Category: College

  • Graduation and Goals

    Notice anything different about me?

    Well I’m hotter by one degree because I GRADUATED!!!!!

     

    I know, I know…bad joke. But it’s BIG news.

    So what’s next?

    The question I have been asked the most: “What hospital are you working at?” —- The answers sounds insane but Im not applying for a nursing job any time soon. Nursing is different from other degrees in that I have to take a state board exam and to be able to sit for NCLEX (boards) I have to get my name released by my school which won’t happen until the end of February or early March.

    ALSO big news, I’m starting Villanova online in May so that is BALLER. (Get it…because basketball and such)

    Until then you can find me blogging, teaching Pilates and smiling my way through my days at lululemon. (I recently discovered I have a passion for talking about pants. I’m dead serious. I love lululemon # job love)  Also, I’m starting my second Pilates certification in January and starting my first yoga certification some time this year. While classical Pilates will always be my first love, in order to reach my long term goals I need to have a well rounded fitness education.

    Speaking of goals…. Let’s talk about how I set goals for the next TEN years. Yes, I mapped out exactly where I want to be at thirty-three. I started by meditating. I let thoughts flow in and out of my mind and pictured the road to thirty-three. I pictured the good, the bad and the incredible until I reached the point where I was exactly where I wanted to be… It was so perfect (for me) that I never wanted to leave that place.

    Let me give you a little peak into how my morning is going to look ten years from today….

     

     

    My alarm sings at 6am. As I yawn and stretch, I reach for my robe to make my way downstairs to my coffee maker. I pour my coffee and look out my kitchen window to see the love of my life throw a stick for the dog. He is up early to feed our goats and chickens and to collect the eggs. I love watching his breath float through the chilly morning air. He sees me in the window and races the dog to the house to see who gets the first kiss of the day. Griffin (the dog) wins. He is faster.

    After enjoying breakfast together, I rush upstairs to pull myself together. I take a bath with lavender oils while singing old school Beyonce. When I’m finished my ‘concert’, I quickly fill in my brows and spray my hair with dry shampoo. I pick out my favorite black on black outfit (always lululemon). Then I tip-toe into Grayson’s room. His sweet two year old face fills my heart. His hair is damp from sweating his way through all the adventures in his dreams. I rub his back and sing him his wake up song. I get him dressed and we meet Dad down stairs.

    I fed him breakfast and get him in the car to go to school. When I get home I jump on a conference call with other Mommy-Bloggers. We talk about balancing authenticity, branding, and potty training.

    At 10am my door-bell rings. It’s my first client of the day. I teach professional athletes Pilates in my home studio. After five hours in the studio, the rest of the day is spent blogging.

    My husband pick’s up Grayson while I make dinner. After the house is straightened, the three of us play until bedtime. As soon as I get G asleep I find my husband has the 25th season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and a glass of champagne waiting for me in our room. I fall asleep 13 minutes in and even though he claims to ‘hate’ reality TV he finishes the episode without me. When it’s over, he sneaks down the hall to check on Grayson. Then he crawls back into bed, kisses my forehead and turns out the light.

     

     

    How to I get to be a big-time blogger helping thousands of people everyday and run my own athlete-based Pilates studio out of my gorgeous farm house? WORK.

    I won’t bore you with the details but just know that I have every milestone mapped out (with wiggle room of course…life is highly unpredictable). In order to achieve those goals I need to work towards them every single day.

    Would you guys be interested in a full post on Goal Setting? How and why I do it? I really didn’t understand the power of meditating about goals until I saw the vision for The Pilates Blonde. That was a year ago and today it is better than I ever dreamed. If that’s something you want to read, leave me a love note in the comment section below.

    I just want to thank you for all your support over the last six months. Putting myself out there with no filter is scary. I trust you and love sharing my life with you…I wouldn’t be anywhere without you!!

    xoxo,

    K

  • Why You Need to Prep for Finals NOW

    Okay so all my college freshman readers hold on to your chair because this is going to rock your world. In a few short months you are going to experience your very first finals week and you will never be the same. You will be so sleep deprived you will burst into laughter for no reason, do cart wheels in the library at 1am, and make a left at a red light. You will live off of caffeine and sour gummy worms. Your hair will be 98% dry shampoo, your hand will have a permanent cramp, and your blood type will be sugar free Red Bull. I am not telling you this to frighten you, but to prepare you for the inevitable.

    The secret to an easy, well easier, finals week? Bust your booty all semester.

    By now you get the gist of how all of your professors operate. You can anticipate how you will be tested and how your papers will be graded. This makes all the difference. I always think the first tests of the semester are the worst because you are going in blind. Use this to your advantage. Alter your studying to how the professor tests you. It makes all the difference.

    Okay so you aren’t sitting pretty with your current grades. Meet with a tutor or your professor directly and make a plan. I am telling you finals week is SO much better when you aren’t worried you are going to fail the course.

    Remember my post about failure? Re-read it. Is failure the end of the world? No but learn from my mistakes so you don’t have to push back your graduation like I did. Skip the parties for a weekend and hit the books. There will be hundreds of over crowed parties with bad beer and loud music but the only take you can retake a test is the following semester. No party is more important than your education.

    So how do you start prepping for finals now?

    1. Get Organized. Do I even need to mention my day planner? (You can find FULL details on my OCD here and here) I have a binder for my classes with my notes from my passed exams. After a test all my old notes go in the binder and I label all of them with sticky notes. If I need to reference them quickly I don’t have to spend 15 minutes searching for what I need. So where are my currently notes? In my purse in the CUTEST envelope ‘folder’ from Target. I take my notes/laptop/day planner with me everywhere. Why? You never know when you are going to sit in traffic for an hour or how long the wait is at the nail salon.
    2. Plan your study time. Schedule it like a meeting or a hair appointment. Would you EVER miss a hair appointment? I didnt think so. Study Study STUDY. Aim for an hour a day. It doesn’t need to be balls-to-the-wall all nighters all the time. Look over your notes on the treadmill or read them once through right before bed.
    3. Stay on top of it. Try your very best not to save all your studying for the week (or day) before your test. Cramming doesn’t help you long term and all that information you shoved in your head will be long gone come finals.
    4. Turn off your phone while you study. Seriously. I used to do airplane mode but I one time I messed up my settings and I didnt get texts for two weeks. People thought I was ignoring them… trust me it wasn’t worth the DRAMA. Save yourself the trouble and just turn it off. Instagram and snapchat will still be there in an hour.
    5. Live a Little. Go out, have tons of fun and make memories. Okay to be honest…this is my weakness. I can be super hard on myself. I am not paying for my education so I feel like I am disrespecting my parents if I am not giving it my all 24/7. I am notorious for constantly having my nose in in my notes. I rarely go out during the semester, especially now that I live at home, but I swear I’m working on it. If you get all your planned studying done… go out.

    Finals don’t have to be the end of the world. If you are going into them with decent grades it is because YOU put in the work ahead of time. I promise it makes finals so much less stressful when you have more time to sleep because you have plenty of ‘wiggle room’ in your current grades. Take an hour today to plan out your study schedule to make finals week a breeze. You will thank me come December.

    Honestly some of my favorite memories with my roommates was 1am in the library during finals week. We laughed so hard partly because we are hilarious but mostly because we were running on 45 minutes of sleep. It sounds crazy but I actually miss it. Happy Studying!!

    xoxo,

    K

  • Update//Cute School Supplies

    well hello pretty people!!

    I am sooooo sorry I have been MIA. It has been a crazy week. First, I had to say ‘See you later’ to the kids I have babysat every week for the last three years. Unfortunately, my class schedule and there schedule didnt match up. These are the last four classes I need to graduate and they are only offered at one time each semester. Needless to say, I was crushed. The youngest in the family was thirteen months when I started, she is now four. I loved being part of their family and our ‘goodbye’ was heartbreaking. The mom and I ugly cried (more like sobbed) in the garage after taking the carseats out of my car. I literally cried myself to sleep for a few nights. I made things worse by charging my oldddd iPhone 4 to watch videos of the kids while I cried into a bowl of tacos at 1am.

    After the trauma of saying goodbye, I started classes. Nursing school isn’t like any other ‘normal’  major. We had 23 hours of lecture in the FIRST week and that doesn’t include our other classes…plus we then had to go home and study because we have an exam coming up in nine days. When you are a nursing student you have to treat every exam as if it is a final. There is no other way to put it. So I will be a hermit until next Monday.

    In order to help survive the intensity, my school supplies have to be cute. I need the right pens, folders, notebooks and tape. I swear it helps soften the blow. I find a lot of the really cool companies by stalking day planner//organization accounts on insta… yes I am that lame. My current favorite is my Goal Digger note pad from Taylor Elliott Designs.

    I hate hate hate backpacks so I try to limit the stuff I bring to class so I can just carry my purse. This pink folder (below) from target is soooooo helpful. Instead of carrying a binder to class I only bring exactly what I need for that day. I put my notes in the folder separated by clips. It fits perfectly in my purse along with my laptop, day planner, pencil case and wallet. No backpack needed.

    In between studying I will be working on posts for next week so you will be getting content. My goal is to give you three posts a week during the semester. Once normal class hours start (two more weeks) I will have a better idea of how to manage my time so hopefully I will be able to give you more!!

    PS if you have a request don’t hesitate to ask!! I got a comment on insta asking about my eyebrows… so take a wild guess as to what the next post is going to be. I hope you guys have a great holiday weekend. I will be at my desk the entire time either studying or writing you love notes.

    xoxo,

    K

  • College Tips: Failing

    Keeping with the College Tips theme I have going on this week, today I want to talk about something that I never thought I would be comfortable enough to share with you. The other day I read a quote that really resinated with me. It said something along the lines of a toddler falls hundreds of times while learning to walk, but they never think that walking isn’t for them. Think about it. How many times does a baby get uber frustrated with trying to learn how to crawl or walk, but they keep trying. Why? Because they don’t understand self doubt and they don’t understand negativity. All that baby sees and hears are the people they love cheering them on…they only see the positive.

    Last fall, after trying my very hardest, I failed. I failed a nursing class and it rocked my world. Well, to be technical, I withdrew from the class so i didn’t actually get below a 76 (the required grade to pass a class in my program) on my transcript. Making the decision to stick it out and give it my all or to withdraw and try again next semester was gut wrenching. I met with teachers and my advisor. I talked to everyone I knew trying to get advise. After I cried myself to sleep for a week I make decision to pull myself out, come up to the surface for air and try again in the spring, this time, prepared.

    The class is called Complex Adult Heath…think ICU, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, sepsis, etc. It was the most overwhelming two months of my life. I was studying until 3am then waking up for class at 5am. I was working two jobs (because I wanted to not for the extra cash). It was far too much. I was grasping the information and I was able to apply it to my patients at clinical without hesitation but the exam questions caused me to second guess myself an it destroyed my confidence. I should also mention that my grade was based only on how I performed on four exams, not my skills on the floor…the reasoning being it preps us for our state boards (NCLEX).

    The day I withdrew felt like waking up from a nightmare. I was calmer and more relaxed, but I didn’t get lazy. I still went to every single lecture. I took notes and made outlines. I kept up with the class as if I was still fighting for a passing grade. It was like getting a preview into what I would be facing next semester. I could ask my peers who were successful in the course how they studied and test it out before I my grades counted. During winter break I studied every lecture from my first go round.

    The first exam I got an 82. The next an 80. I was thriving in clinical, giving meds to three patients and applying all the skill from lab, knowledge from class and the time management from experience. Slowly but surely I earned my confidence back. I ended up getting an 85 on the final…which honestly was UNREAL. I did it. I passed the hardest class I had ever taken…one that totally destroyed me a few months before. I had never been more excited in my life.

    Failing taught me how to dust myself off and get back in the ring.  I no longer feared failure because I learned how to handle it. Every failure is a learning opportunity, a chance to evaluate your mistakes and to improve. Failing, oddly enough, made me more confident. Failing a test or a class isn’t the end of the world.Failing, I think, teaches you more than succeeding. I had very little trouble in nursing school up to that point. I studied, I got good grades and it wasn’t all that hard. But failing taught me to problem solve and get to the root of my short comings.

    Alright guys…Im off to watch SVU, sip on some sleepy time tea and go to sleep because I’m a 23 year old grandma.

    xoxo,

    K