March Designs - Au Revoir February

Many know the phrase "Want to hear God laugh, tell God your plans." Well, THAT was February. The stomach bug knocked me for a loop and certainly laid waste to many of my plans. Though somewhat discouraged by my lack of headway, much like a crocus attempting to bloom through the snow in early spring, I persevere.

February Designs Results
1. Continue one in and one out - Did pretty good
2. Continue no book buying - Did great
3. Cook at home 3x/wk - Not so well, but cooked 2x/wk this past week
4. Exercise 6 days/wk - Not nearly
5. No eating after 7pm. - Accomplished this most days
6. Review finances weekly - Didn't happen
7. Eat at least 1 serving of veggies daily - Sadly, no
8. Almost forgot, limit refined sugar indulgences to once per week - Sadly, during the stomach bug refined sugar was the only thing I could digest.

Oh well, Au Revoir to February. Hello March! Hello Spring! Hello March Designs!

1. Continue one in/one out
2. No book buying :(
3. Cook at home 3x/wk - I can do it, I know I can!
4. Weekly week in review post about my monthly design accomplishments
5. Daily exercise of at least 30min (includes walking the dog if consecutive 30 min).
6. Cease eating by 7pm.
7. limit refined sugar to 1 serving 2x/wk.
8. Increase veggie intake.

I have some more I'd like to accomplish, but I'm not sure it wise to list them. I'll ponder the possibility. Now I'm off to work on my monthly budget and pay bills.

Ask and the Universe Provides

Last weekend I was preparing a post for V-Day all about self-love. Of course that topic came from my understanding that I need to practice self-love. I was going to talk about how I was going to love myself better. Get in touch with my values, such as health and practice a cleansing. The kind that you clean up your eating allowing the body to eliminate waste and become healthier. Well, that was Sunday. Having not finished my post I planned to finish it Monday. Then the skies opened and the Universe bestowed upon me a fine detoxifying opportunity. I came down with the stomach bug my daughter had seemingly breezed through the previous week. Only I have not breezed through it. Quite the opposite. Yes, the Universe was laughing when she answered, only I was slow to get the joke.

My daughter came down with it last Thursday afternoon and by mid-morning the next day, she was asking for a BLT. Contrarily I've been out since Monday afternoon, and only today tried "real" food (not Jell-O, 7-Up, sorbet or toast) this afternoon. Ironically people pay oodles to do for them what nature did for me for FREE! Sometimes you just gotta make lemonade from those lemons. :)

And in answer to Treacle's question about how my February goals were going. Sadly, the better of them haven't gone well. A work situation exploded the first week leaving me excessively stressed. Unfortunately my primary reaction during such times is to hibernate or effectively zone out when given the chance. So I found myself as usual arriving home to burrow in. Aside from walking the dog regularly, I've done very little exercise. Very little cooking, very little sugar resistance, but did manage to do well respecting the 7pm eating limit.

As I wrote in an earlier post that I am reading Suzy Welch's book 10-10-10 about a strategy for decision making. Because the strategy is value-based, one person's decision may turn out differently than another person's. Of course the strategy only works well if you truly know your values. While reading the book, I realized that over the past few years I've gotten out of touch with my values. If fact, if someone were to come out and ask me about my values, I'd likely only be able to come up with one or two. This left me feeling not only sad, but somewhat disappointed and even ashamed of myself.

These thoughts brewing in my head combined with my standard reaction to high levels of stress, became a cue for me to take some time to re-examine and perhaps, re-orient, my values and how I'm living them. Then came the stomach bug which I suppose is a way to re-set my clock. Not to mention what blessing it is to have our health.

February Designs

I don't consider January a particularly successful month in terms of meeting my intentions. I have found myself more interested in zoning out rather than focusing on that which I aspire to. Perhaps it was the cold and cloudiness or maybe I'm just lazy and unmotivated.

January Intentions Report
1. 1 thing in - 1 thing out. With the exception of grocery items, birthdays and Christmas, for anything new that comes into our home, something of comparable use/space must leave our home whether through donation, gifting, selling, etc.
2. No book buying during this month. I've got oodles to read already. (Done)
3. At least 10 min yoga per day for 30 days. (Not Done)
4. Cook at home from scratch 3 times per week. (Did well some weeks, but not all)
5. Limit refined sugar to once per week. (Limited to 3x/wk)
6. Review finances every week (e.g. record and pay bills). (Not Done)

The past couple weeks I've been reading Suzy Welch's 10-10-10 book. I first read about her 10-10-10 system when she wrote an article on it for O Magazine in 2006. I thought it a valuable concept, but didn't entirely understand it. Luckily I found her book at the library. I'll chat more about it later, but for now I will mention her concept of designing one's own life. Certainly this concept is not hers alone, but when combined with other aspects of the book it spoke to me. Perhaps I just needed to hear it now. I've certainly heard it before, but you know what they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will come.

February Designs
1. Continue one in and one out.
2. Continue no book buying.
3. Cook at home 3x/wk.
4. Exercise 6 days/wk.
5. No eating after 7pm.
6. Review finances weekly.
7. Eat at least 1 serving of veggies daily.
8. Almost forgot, limit refined sugar indulgences to once per week.

Though more ambitious than this past month, I think I can do it. I think I can...I think I can...

Where'd the Wagon Go?!?!

Courtesy of FarmJournal.com

We've all heard the phrase, "fallen off the wagon". We've probably all experienced it too. Well, my inner chaparone apparently left for a little vacation and my inner epicure must have been off duty. Not only did I fall off, when I woke I found the wagon had left town completely.

It's not all tears and failure. After experiencing an absence of ear congestion the past week or so (the first since last spring) I noticed that the ear congestion returned. I don't believe in coincidence so I find this information encouraging. Also, I was reminded of how tired sugar makes me. Not only do I feel a decline in my energy soon after eating refined sugar, plus that mental foggy feeling, I also require more sleep than usual. All information that equals motivation.

Now I've rounded up another wagon and I'm clawing my way back on. I'm still working on my other intentions for this month, though I have exchanged doing yoga daily for another type of exercise due to an opportunity sponsored by the blogger at Well-Heeled. We've begun a 30-Day Shred challenge. A 20 minute workout led by Jillian Michaels of The Biggest Loser fame. I'm looking forward to discovering my results. I'm ending this post with the quote of the week which is most befitting my current circumstances.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over. ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

My Inner Chaperon

One of my intentions for this month is to restrict my refined sugar intake to once per week. I didn't fulfill that intention this past week as I ended up eating refined sugar 3 times this past week. Although I am a bit disappointed, I am pleased to have done as well as I did. Refined sugar is hard for me to resist, I'm a bit of an addict. I am pleased that I managed to only have it 3 times last week rather than the multiple times a day which I had been indulging in for the last several months. Mireille Guiliano speaks about moderation when indulging in such pleasurable treats. Now I understand moderation, but I don't execute it well.

Currently I am reading Victoria Moran's Living a Charmed Life. The author talks about the difference between one's inner epicure, who helps us to enjoy pleasure, and one's inner chaperon. It is our inner chaperon which differentiates between peak experience and the point where that peak experience dwindles into the ordinary. Ms. Moran tells the story of when she was a teenager at an airport speaking with a girl her age. She was hungry and munching on a bag of cookies in response to that hunger. She offered the cookies to her acquaintance who declined saying that she was much too hungry to eat sweets. Ms. Moran, though initially feeling annoyed, recognized that the girl cared enough about herself to wait to eat a proper meal.

This story has helped me to better understand the place of sweets in my diet and how they can be eaten in moderation. I've actually used this a few times when I have been very hungry and not only did it save me from what likely would have become binges, it helped me to understand that I can much more easily control myself around sweets if my hunger is satisfied by healthier choices. Because my hunger is either completely satisfied or mostly satisfied, I don't feel deprived if I have only a little bit of sweets.

Now when I'm ravenous and seeing a refined sugar option, I tell myself, "I am much too hungry to eat sweets" and I understand what moderation is all about. For me, it is primarily keeping myself out of situations that can quickly turn excessive.

The Word

There was a number of times that I wanted to post something the past several days, but chose to hang out with my kid instead. It's been so rare the past year that I had time to hang with her without the pulls of either her school work, drama with her dad, or my work. This past week we had none of those and it was incredibly enjoyable to be together watching murder mysteries (she's becoming a fan too) and doing little things around the house, oh, and a spot of shopping before the new year. There's no better luxury for less. Alas all good things come to an end. Tomorrow she returns to school and I return to the office.

I've had the opportunity to consider my intentions for this month as well as what I want this year to become. Looking back I can see where I have successfully implemented desirable lifestyle changes that not only made me healthier, but they made me happier. Over the past couple years I've unfortunately moved away from those changes, but I am getting back to them. The past five years has provided me with a smorgasbord of experiences to draw on as far as what works for me and what doesn't. So here I go, or rather, here I am.

Christine Kane in her blog recommended a year or two ago to select a word that reflects our desires. My word for 2010 is EMBODIMENT. To me embodiment means living a life that reflects my values. I have spent past years saying what I wanted, but not living what I wanted, particularly this past year. It's now time for me to live as I know I can and to embody my values first and foremost for my well-being, and secondly to be the role model I want to be for my daughter.

January Intentions
1. 1 thing in - 1 thing out. With the exception of grocery items, birthdays and Christmas, for anything new that comes into our home, something of comparable use/space must leave our home whether through donation, gifting, selling, etc.
2. No book buying during this month. I've got oodles to read already.
3. At least 10 min yoga per day for 30 days.
4. Cook at home from scratch 3 times per week.
5. Limit refined sugar to once per week.
6. Review finances every week (e.g. record and pay bills).