Debra Baker

Lately I've been struggling a lot with self improvement. I've been eating too much, doing homework to little, exercising to little, and wasting way too much time on social media. I've gone vegan - not a hard change for me since I care so much about the movement and I've already been a vegetarian for a while. This has definitely helped me to cut back on the sweets, since so many contain milk and eggs. It's also worried my mom enough that she's gotten in to home cooked meals, and those are always super healthy. I still don't feel like I'm doing enough though. I still feel like I've completely lost all self control. I can't even hold off of my lunch until lunchtime, and that's after eating about 8 lbs of food for breakfast. I eat all of what's in front of me and usually more. I'm constantly thinking about food. It's not like this is a new thing, I've been in this weird frame of mind of planning my day out (what I'll eat, when I'll exercise, when I'll do homework) thoroughly and obsessing over it and then not following any of it, for kind of a while. It's a bad habit and, unfortunately, habits are really hard to break. It's sucking the life force out of me if I must be honest. However, exercising always makes me feel good, so to make myself do that thing that makes me feel good, I'll give myself, and anyone else reading this, a bit of motivation by posting about my favorite you tube workout channels. Yes, I know workout videos are cheesy, but with it being dark when I get home, I really can't run, and these are the next best thing. It's hard to get yourself started when you're just following a workout routine without anything to watch or get you pumped.

My favorite fitness channel on youtube is SuperherofitnessTV. Her name is Kierra LaShae, and she's pretty fantastic. Her channel is mostly full of dance workouts, but she has a few other sorts of videos as well, such as snack ideas and conventional HIIT workouts. She's also worked with DailyBurn. She's a mom, a musician, and recently a vegan. I was super excited when she made that change.

She's adorable which is weird because she's a lot older than me but.. still adorable

Another favorite is YogaWithAdrien. This channel is much less cardio. A lot of her yoga videos are pretty easy, and some are more challenging. She's very devoted to her "find what feels good" principal. She's all about doing whatever it seems like you're body is telling you to do.

PopsugarFitness is pretty standard, but it honestly has some pretty good stuff. There's lot's of variety: Kickboxing, dancing, conventional HIIT, lazy girl arm workouts, but killers, everything. One of their trainers names is Rebecca Louis, who has her own channel. PopSugar also posts a ton of workouts on Pinterest that are pretty great.

Look at that body! Fitness goals yo

Rebecca Louis has less variety than the whole Popsugar channel, but it's still a pretty good channel, especially when you're trying to get toned and don't have tons of time; most of her videos are pretty short.

Last night, my workout didn't poop me out, but it was still pretty good. I started with a quick 10 minute ballet vid I found on PopsugarFitness, just to warm me up. Then, since I felt like listening to music, I headed on over Pinterest and just found a cardio workout written out to warm me up. I put on Spotify, and then instead of jogging in place when it asked me to, I danced around my bedroom. Occasionally I'd pick up a pair of 5 lb weights during. The workout was too easy for me, so I took out the rests. If a workout doesn't suit your needs, modify it! there's no reason to follow something that's not gonna give you anything! After about 20 minutes of that, I did a 15 minute power yoga video, that I found on Youtube; I especially find yoga difficult to stay concentrated on without a guide, unless I'm at a park or something with no distractions around me (not gonna happen during the winter).

I hope the cold weather hasn't sucked all of the motivation and or self control out of you all, because those are terrible things to have sucked out of you. If it is, don't fret, spring will be here soon, but first is CHRISTMAS, and there is also always tea before the sun comes out again. Hope you're loving the season though. I truly hope you are. :)

The rain will not stop them. There are lines around every corner & block at Wordstock. #WordstockPDX @literaryarts pic.twitter.com/ib7DUGBTHq
— Scott Cheshire (@ScottCheshire) November 7, 2015

I went to Wordstock last Saturday with my mom. Wordstock is a annual book festival here in Portland, Ore. where a multitude of different authors and those with literary jobs come and speak about their projects.

If I could only explain it in one word, that word would be packed. Now, I've been to crowded events before, but I honestly don't know if I've ever been to something that busy. The One Direction concert in Seattle perhaps, but that was at a stadium, which was designed to be able to fit that many people. This was at an art museum, that usually has about 30 people there at once, and never any more. Packed might be on odd word to use to describe the entire event, but it affected everything. Even with the church across the street opened up to the public, everything was over mass capacity. Every food place was sold out by 2, and the even lasted until 6. Toilet paper was in the midst of being used up every time I went to the bathroom, and my mom kept complaining about the rain lingering on other people's jackets getting on her. The line for a show I saw, 6 female authors speaking about their horror novels, went up three flights of stairs. My mom's not very good at walking or standing for a long time, so this was a bit of a toil for her.

I had originally gone to see John Krakauer, author of Into The Wild, but his event was at max capacity. My mom grumbled quite a bit about having to walk all the way to the church and back in the rain, and then suggested getting coffee, but I was honestly smiling the whole way through. The rain usually puts me in a good mood, and the coffee was a quite nice added bonus. We then got through the wet, crowded, mixed up line and into the up the stairs line. The talk about the writing of the horror novels was actually pretty good. The 6 authors, Paige Mckenzie, Virginia Boeker, April G. Tucholke, Cat Winters, McCormick Templman, and Kendare Blake were all very nice, very smart, and very humorous. Also they all seemed surprisingly normal for horror authors, except for maybe Kendare Blake, who had some interesting lines, such as "I just want a girl to stab stab stab," and spoke of her neurotic tendencies in keeping her house safe. I liked them all though. Nothing was too mind boggling, but it was nice to hear about the writing process of a novel, especially less cookie cutter ones. After that we left the crowded room, and shuffled into a much larger one to see an OPB presentation. Unfortunately, I was hungry and tired, and didn't pay much attention here.

Anyways, it's really nice to see how many people are so interested in the literary arts. Of course, this is Portland, so it could be expected, but it was still surprising. Books are great, they teach us to think things over in multiple ways, they teach us empathy, and they teach us creativity. They teach us to be critical, and they even entertain. I must admit, I don't read nearly as much as I should, but I'm glad so much of Portland does.