Friday Five: My running playlist + Breaking 2 documentary+ Ways to give back through exercise!! {For

Good Morning & happy, happy Fri-YAY!! YAY we made it!! I sure am glad because we have some super fun things packed into the next 7 days! One includes: THE BEACH! Oh yes, these toes will soon be in the sand and I can’t wait! Did I mention turkey too? Yeah, that’s exciting but not as exciting as the sweets following it-am I right?

Anyways, let’s talk about some Friday Fives today, shall we?

I may or may not have broken out my Christmas decorations this past week but I honestly felt behind considering it’s been Christmas at Home Depot & Hobby Lobby since July. (Maybe that’s a tiny bit of an exaggeration but it SURE feels like it.) When do you put your decorations up? Is before Thanksgiving too soon to you? I just can’t get enough of twinkly lights and when the holiday lights go up I can’t help but get extra excited! I didn’t put up our tree just yet, but I did add my countertop decorations and brought out a few of the other decorations to go around the house!

PS did you see that this came out? I have way too many favorite Christmas movies on this list, but Elf and Christmas Vacation are the absolute best!

Besides Christmas movies, documentaries are my jam! Just like this one. Can you imagine running a marathon in under 2 hours? INSANE. I loved watching this documentary to see behind the scenes of these insanely talented athletes.

After watching these types of documentaries/movies I’m all kinds of motivated to get my run on! While lately, I haven’t been just bubbling over to run in the cold–I have to dig extra deep to get myself going a lot more lately. Something I’ve been trying to do more of though, is add more music to my runs over playing podcasts. I can’t seem to push myself to my limits when I’m listening to talks or audiobooks, but music always does the trick to get me moving my legs faster during my workouts. So, I’ve decided to take my music up a notch and start creating playlists again! I know it seems lame and definitely old school considering we have Pandora hanging around these days but there’s just something about coming up with a personalized playlist that has ALL of my favorite songs in one run.

Here’s what my playlist looked like this week for my run:

Feels–Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams & Katy Perry

Look What You Made Me Do–Taylor Swift

What Lovers Do–Maroon 5

Kids–One Republic

Brother–Needtobreathe

Shake It Out–Florence + The Machine (**This one always get me pumped up!)

Sit Still, Look Pretty–Daya

Hey Mama–Mat Kearney

Honey I’m Good–Andy Grammer

Thunder–Imagine Dragons

Brand New–Ben Rector

Believer–Imagine Dragons

Light Me Up–Birdy

On My Mind–Ellie Goulding

Walking On A Dream–Empire of the Sun

I have something else that I’ve been dying to tell you too! I found a new (to me) meditation app! It’s free too which is my favorite type of app! It’s called “Simple Habit”. It’s REALLY great and is very comparable to the “Headspace” app that I’ve talked about before. But, I kind of think it’s even better. They give you a 31 day free trial of 5 minute guided meditations and they’re soooooo soothing and calming to me. They also have a list of different sections to choose from with a couple of free meditations with each section, like sleep habits, focus and happiness! I’ve tried multiple of the sleep meditations and they are AMAZING! You’ll have to download it and give it a try to see what you think! It’s really great in my opinion! Oh AND, you know I’m all about guided meditations, but they also have just background music if you aren’t down with all the extra talking while you meditate. The waves one is a good choice, and then so is the rainfall. Go give it a listen and tell me your thoughts!

The last thing I have to share today is seriously something that really excites me about working out during my slow motivation period! Walking the dogs definitely counts to me as getting a workout in because I’m moving my body and so are my cute little fur children! Check out this article I found from Fitness Magazine this week! It’s 10 ways to give back through exercise! I already do “Charity Miles” every single walk/run/ride I do, but there were so many others on this list I hadn’t ever heard of! I am definitely going to start doing a few of these, and for sure the Walk for a dog one! How awesome is that?! I actually can’t wait to take the dogs on a walk today! 🙂

Alright and that’s a wrap for my Friday Five! Lots of randomness, but hopefully you got a few motivational ideas out of today’s post! I hope you have the most amazing weekend filled with lots of pre-Thanksgiving week fun!

Questions for YOU today! (Comment below with your thoughts!)

What’s your favorite way to donate to charity?

Are you into meditation?

Do you like documentaries? If you do, tell me your favorites! I’m always looking for new ones to check out! I can’t get enough of them!