Eyes

            I find it amazing how much our eyes impact lives.  An organ that seems so small, but yet it does so much. Today I was babysitting for the little boy that I regularly babysit for and I realized that my eyes mean so much to him.  


           He had soccer practice and every time he would score a goal, he would look at me to make sure I saw, when he fell and got right back up, he would look at me again.  At first I did not notice because I was checking e-mails on my phone, texting, and reading, consumed with what I needed to get done.  When I looked up for a moment, I noticed it though and put down what I was doing, wondering how many looks my way I had missed.


           It seems society has programed ourselves to multitask, to walk and text, walk and call, look down when people walk toward us, anything to look away...but what if we didn't.  


         When my boyfriend looks me in the eyes, it means the world to me.  The eyes show our true souls.  I feel so grateful that when I played softball, basketball, field hockey, sang in musicals, performed in plays, performed improv, sang with my band, etc. I had eyes watching me when I looked up.


         One thing I strive for everyday is for people to know I am genuine, and sincere.  My hope is that they look up and see it in my eyes.  Are you looking up?
       
 

Enjoy the moment

     

               The time has finally come to write a new blog.  It has been months since my old one.  It is not that I haven't been inspired, I actually have been, more than ever. It is just that I have realized that technology sometimes drains the energy from my soul.  I could have a great day and then check my e-mail and be bombarded with stress, feeling that I have to get to every e-mail, or even with facebook trying to be up to date with all the news of the people around me and making sure I  am up to date with  what I am up to.  Even reading information at a screen can make my eyes glaze over.  Do not get me wrong, I love technology, it is just that sometimes I feel that I miss the actual moment I am in and instead am in an online world.


    I recently went on an amazing trip to San Francisco California with my boyfriend.  It was so great to just spend time with him and not worry about auditions or work or checking every e-mail. I did go online a few times, but not as often as normal.  I shared wonderful moments with him.  We hiked three miles up and three miles down a mountain.  I had never done that before and got to put all my hard work of working out with Jillian to work in the real world.  We also went to beautiful beaches, actual hot springs and walked around parks.  We even bathed in actual mud. It was amazing to be one with nature and have so much fun doing such simple things.
     
      I was able to meet his family and spend times with them.  It was so nice to spend hours just talking over food and coffee.  I belly laughed so hard as we played something as simple as cards.


Coming back from California has made me want to be in the moment everywhere I am and really enjoy all the beauty that is around me.  Sometimes we lock ourselves in a computer, forgetting all the beauty God has surrounded us with.  Find your moment today and really enjoy it because you never know when it could be gone. I look forward to more travels to see this beautiful earth.

Capture It

I think that Eminem, the rapper, said it best, when he said, "Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity To seize everything you ever wanted — One moment Would you capture it or just let it slip?"

That is what happened to me in September of 2011. I chose to "Capture it!" I was at my wits end. I had just moved to Hoboken, NJ and could not get a job, and kept gaining weight and feeling miserable. I was going on dates every night, eating out all the time, drinking, and wishing I could get back to the Nicole I used to believe I was. I felt untalented, unimportant, unhealthy, and unattractive. I had forgotten my worth. I will never forget, that I prayed to God one night and just kept asking him to help me get back to my healthy self somehow and back to believing in me. Literally, the next day, I was checking my e-mail and I saw something posted saying they were looking for people to try out Jillian Michael's workout program. It said looking for people who wanted to lose between 20 and 40 pounds. I let go of my pride and e-mailed my story. Right away I received an email back and was called in to be interviewed. I was picked right away.


When I got there they took photos of me and had me step on a scale. I literally had not weighed myself in a year, so I was scared. I was shocked when I read 174 pounds. How had I let myself go that much? The people were so supportive and I was in such a down state about myself, but they had this belief that by 90 days, I would lose all the weight that I wanted to lose.


Jillian Michael's workout and diet plan was one of the hardest things I have done in my life. It had me strength training and doing cardio. I could not drink alcohol for 3 months, have any desserts, or fake sugars. I worked every part of my body and became stronger physically and mentally every day! I learned that the mind is so powerful and you can get your body to do things that you can't fathom doing. I can now do 100 pushups!

I decided not to date in the three months and the few dates I went on, I just had coffee. It was nearly impossible to date anyways without being able to eat or drink anything outside of her diet plan. When I performed with my band, Zilla Willa, I gave the guys in my band my drinks. I also did not go out with friends much. In doing all of this, I had three months of self-reflection. I learned to become my own best friend. That is the most important thing beyond my weight loss of 40 pounds and 46 inches, that I gained from this program. I learned to love myself! I learned my worth.


These three months literally changed my life. As the program ended, I met the love of my life, was hired to teach fitness classes to adults and kids, became more confident performing with my band and improv troupe, met some of the most inspirational and amazing people, and learned to believe in myself and never let that go. I learned that although I got to the shape I wanted, it was the girl on the inside that was beautiful. I have gained a little weight back, but I continue to strive to eat healthy for life and always include fitness in my life.


I encourage everyone to go for what they want, have time for self reflection, and never be resistant to change or something out of your comfort zone...it just may change your life! Just "Capture it!" I believe whole heartedly in paying it forward, so feel free to e-mail me at nicoledonofrio@yahoo.com if you have any questions or need advice on anything in your life that my blog made you think of.

You may see my before and after pictures here:


http://www/.jillianmichaelsbodyrevolution.com/drtv/ecs/reviews-success-stories.html

This Moment

Today I felt overwhelmed. I guess you could say, I felt a little lost. I realized that I am always running from thing to thing, day to day. I love everything I do, but sometimes I feel like I need another me in order to do it all. As I came home today, tears welled up in my eyes. I felt as if there is so much that I want to do, but I do not know how to put it all together.

I feel that my purpose is really big. It may be bigger than what I dream of even. I believe that I am called to help people in a big way. I want to sing, to act, to do improv, to do personal training, to write, to work with kids, to song write, etc. but ultimately I want to spread joy. I know I will figure out a way to group my loves at some point and what I end up doing may surprise me, but sometimes I wish I could know now.

I felt all this and then as I was checking my e-mail, I came across a video my mother sent me. It made me take a deep breath and realize to have gratitude. Be grateful for all that I am already achieving and be patient. Be happy that I have found so many loves. Be courageous in continuing to explore the avenues I have before me and live each day fully and present and seeing the joy and spreading it in every avenue I am venturing toward. In time, I will discover the best path for me, but if I have to stretch every part of me today, it is better than being held tight away from everything I love.


When I watched the little girl in the video, she reminded me of what I love to do, explore, and maybe it is not so bad after all and I haven't finished my exploration. When I heard the old man speak, he reminded me to take a look around and that I need to have some moments to just feel, feel the rain, feel the sun, feel the love around me, feel my strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly feel gratitude for every person that has come into my life. To be in the moment. I encourage you to watch this video...

The video: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxSF-Louie-Schwartzberg-Grati

Ice-skating Hope

Yesterday an amazing thing happened. This may sound odd, but it was one of the most challenging things that I have ever had to do. I nanny for a little boy who just turned five and I was nannying for him all day yesterday. His mother suggested that we go ice-skating because it would be something fun to do and he had never gone. I had not been ice-skating since I was in high school and thought it would be fun too.

We arrived at the ice skating rink, rented skates and were about to go on the ice. As I peered at the ice-skating rink, watching people zoom across the ice, I was reminded of how hard it was when I first learned to ice skate. It then dawned on me, how was I going to teach someone to ice skate for the first time and could I even still ice-skate?

I held on to the little boy tightly by the hand and told him to hold the railing. He watched all the skaters going by and said, “I want to ice skate right now!” I explained that it takes a little time and he could do it, he just had to learn some basic things first. He was impatient and moving his feet as fast as possible, only to fall. He would cry and I would explain, to be successful at this, we are going to have to take some falls. He began blaming me for why he could not do it, looking in my eyes with desperation that he wanted to have this skill. I did not know what to do and then I said, lets get off the ice.

We got off the ice and just observed the other skaters. We observed adults, way older than him moving barely an inch at a time, still holding onto the railing. We observed people who looked like professionals, gliding smoothly along the ice, spinning around and coming to a stop effortlessly. We observed little kids falling or just walking upon the ice. We observed it all and figured out what was working best for people and how we could achieve that. The forward motion seemed to be the trick. We practiced off the ice moving forward one foot at a time and not stopping.

We got back on the ice and to my amazement, he was moving, while holding on to the railing, not falling like before. He said he wanted to go faster like the other people. I said he could, but it would take some time. A clump of people were all at the railing and we had to decide if we would wait for them to move ahead or challenge ourselves to go away from the railing and glide past them. Of course he and I took the challenge. I just told him don’t stop, keep going forward, don’t stop moving. When we finally stopped, we not only had passed all those people. We had looped around the entire rink. I said to the little boy, how about we try going around one more time and then we go home and he said, how about three more times. Now that is determination! Not only did we circle around the rink three more times, but we circled around pretty darn fast. Two things this boy had asked for happened…to learn to skate right at that moment and also skate fast.

That is the power of will and determination. He fell down and he got back up. He did not let it stop him and as much as I thought it would be challenging to see him sad and angry, I did not lose my patience in teaching him, I believed in him.

I truly believe anything is possible if you want it bad enough. This is a small story, but he held the hope and I did not give up on him. To him it is a day in his life that gained him a new skill set. It also taught me how important it is to have patience and encouragement towards another person. I think of my own life and all the dreams and things I have wanted to accomplish. I always held the hope that they would come true and sometimes I was lucky enough for the right people to come along, hold the hope with me and challenge my potential. I hope God continues to bring people and scenarios into my life that helps me to do what seems to be the impossible. This year alone, I have learned our minds are more powerful than we can imagine. As the new year approaches, I feel proud of all that I accomplished this year and excited for more new beginnings. It doesn’t matter if you are 5 or 85, we can always grow and learn and challenge our potential. What is something you think you can’t do? Maybe you should give it one more try!

Back to Me

Today I had a crazy realization. I was running on the treadmill and realized that I have found myself. In the past three months, a lot has happened. I let go of a lot of things, pondered a lot, and really focused my life. I think sometimes in life, stuff happens that makes us stray from our true self. Circumstances, people, insecurities, etc.

I lost 40 pounds recently and although that is great, the biggest thing was that I got back into fitness and back to not letting the exterior of me get in the way of who I really am. I used to be crazy into fitness and was certified as a personal trainer, but many things pulled me away from that. I used to eat healthy and be all about the power of food for your body, but that too I strayed from. I remember the best thing about working out every day was that it made me more focused on all the goals in my life. I am back into fitness now and have gained a lot of knowledge on health and fitness and just want to pay it forward in as many ways as I can. As I ran 5 miles today, I realized I went back to the true me, the fit me, the girl who always looks to go forward, not fall behind.

I have realized what I do need and do not need in my life as well. It is funny how you can grow so much, but people can see you in the same way. I used to ask questions or not be confident about things that I already knew the answer too. I guess you could say that I held back in fear, but now I have more direction with my wants and actions. I have realized what I truly love and what I deserve and not to settle for anything less. It is crazy to think of some of the guys I dated that I knew weren't right for me, but I stayed dating out of thinking the guy of my dreams wouldn't like me. It is even crazier to think of people I hung around whom I didn't feel the best around, but it was someone to hang out with. We all deserve to be surrounded by people who enrich our souls, not pull us down.

I have narrowed down my biggest interests. I love singing, acting, people, working with children, fitness, and improv. If I can continue living my life incorporating these things in my jobs, I will be happy with my work. I believe happiness is yours and yours alone. There is no need to prove yourself to other people, unless you need that to be happy. Success is what success is to you. If you will be happiest having an amazing 9 to 5 job that makes you tons of money, then awesome, but if you will be happiest doing a million jobs, that incorporate everything you love, but may not make as much, that is great too. Find your own happiness and find people who support your happiness.

I have learned to listen more, be more patient, deal directly with emotions instead of coping them with something else, to be open, and to push my limits. I think if you want something bad enough, it can happen. Think of a goal and conquer it...I dare you!

43 things

I have discovered so much in the past three months. I really have confirmed my belief that anything is possible...maybe not anything, but close to it, if you persist. There is an amazing site called www.43things.com If you go to http://www.43things.com/person/broadwaybeachgirl you will see my list that I made in 2007. It is funny because it is 4 years later and I still want a lot of those same things and some of those things, I have semi achieved or am in the process of achieving.

I have been reading a lot of inspirational books lately and have been surrounding myself with super uplifting people and I feel my life has shifted so much. It is so important to be around positive influences to your life. I am currently reading this book called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. In it, it says "If we observe humans who are two years old, we find that most of the time these humans have a big smile on their face and they're having fun. They are exploring the world. They are not afraid to play. They are afraid when they are hurt, when they are hungry, when some of their needs are not met, but they don't worry about the past, don't care about the future, and only live in the present moment." It then says, "Our normal human tendency is to enjoy life , to play, to explore, to be happy, and to love."

It is such a true statement, so why do we lose it. Why do we become so serious as we age? Why do we still think of past hurts? Life can be extremely hard, but I have really come to learn to let go. The only thing we have is the here and now and it is so important to appreciate that and capture everything you desire for in life. I have grown to really appreciate a smile, the love from my family, the sun, water to quench my thirst, a body that moves me, and conversations. I have found that although this is a material world, I am still drawn to the simplistic things.

So bite into life and find your passions. I know I still want to complete some of my 43 things,...what are your 43 things?