My "Say Cheese" workout for the week!

[Note:  I actually put this post together last Thursday night, planning to post it on Friday.  However, with everything going on Friday in Boston, it didn't cross my mind and then when I did remember, it didn't seem relevant.  However, I decided to share tonight!]

So I've been trying to clean up the "draft" blog post section that I have going that is full of half written blog entries and I wanted to share something that I had flagged a while ago.  Four score and seven years ago I noticed this blog entry from Khushboo about having a "Say Cheese" workout and I thought it was such a cute idea.

As she writes, in addition to developing abs, smiling also does wonders for our health.  I'd read a while back that smiling releases endorphins so just the act of smiling, even if you're feeling blue, brings you closer to feeling better!  It is this reason that I began randomly smiling throughout my runs.  I am sure I look like an idiot but during the points in my runs that I feel miserable, I force a smile on my face.  It hopefully releases some endorphins, and also reminds me that I'm running for ME.  And during my run I should be having fun.  I definitely used the "smile method" during my runs this week.

I thought that this week, more than anything else, we all might need a little extra smiling in our life.  So I wanted to share some of what has been making me smile this week.

• First off, the Dove Beauty ad?  Have you guys all seen this video? Anyways, the parody literally made me laugh out loud.  The parody is spot on, and also is very true.  They could have gone so many different ways with the parody (I originally thought it was going to be guys describing themselves in great detail and then when describing the other guys, the artist would come up with a stick figure or something... i.e. guys don't notice and aren't descriptive.)  Here is the parody: 

• Tell me this doesn't make you smile a little bit.

• Buzzfeed's list of Funniest Conversations on Tumblr

• The fact that this week I was having an e-mail conversation with my uncles and one of them, perfectly used the following GIF in the e-mail.  Literally had me laughing out loud at my desk at how amazing my family is.

• This image explaining the use of QR codes:

• Alright, now life is only fair if you can laugh at yourself in addition to everything else in life.  This week I was laughing at a "blonde" moment I had (although I am true and true brunette.)  A friend and I were having a conversation via e-mail where she told me that she was studying for her GRE.  I literally thought about this for a little bit and then wrote back, "I'm confused. You graduated from high school... so why are you studying for the GRE?"  I has somehow in my head mistaken the GRE, which you need for grad schools, with the GED, which is a high school equivalency degree. #woops #ireallyamsmart