31 things challenge Update

So...we're close to the challenge coming to an end...like I said before, I'm gathering up people for the next challenge, you in? want more info? let me know....

It'll be a birthday challenge...by your next birthday what fitness goals do you want to do or achieve...for me, i'll pick 30 things until my 30th birthday :)

Alright, my update.

Work up to 25 full pushups (I've been doing my p90x and working out, I can tell my chest muscles have gotten stronger, I might just try and do 25 pushups this week)
Track food daily (yep)
Try a new recipe weekly (yep)
Blog/tweet update daily (yep)
Share my goals with friends (yep)
Meditate/journal at least weekly (ish)
Take before/current/after pictures (need to take after)
Get 7 hours of sleep (uh oh, do naps count?)
Incorporate more weight-training into my schedule (love it)
Learn one old Turbo Kick round (this is hard!)
Eat at home more often than out (yep!)
Walk Dolly each day (ish)
Celebrate successes not weight based (yep!)
Run local stairs with friends weekly (yep! when it hasn't been raining)
Increase outdoor running mileage to 5 miles / run ** I can currently comfortably run 3 miles outside, would like to just get back to running around 5 (I might just try this tomorrow morning)
Finish reading In Defense of Food and Women Food and God (finished Women Food and God, definitely recommend)
Try P90x weekly (love it)
Call/email/text my family daily (stole that from Monica's) (almost daily!)
Stop hitting snooze (hopefully getting 7 hours of sleep will help, this is also stolen from Monica) (er)
Go to the Farmer's Market on Saturdays (have gone once, need to go again)
Stay committed to health even when on vacation/out of town (haven't gone out of town since Memorial Day)
Park 'n' walk when I go to stores (stole from Crocker, this will be hard when it's hot!) (i've done this more often than I thought...even when I go to the gym)
Turn my computer/cell phone off an hour before bed (um)
Set health intentions for the summer and year (setting the challenge is my first step)
Say when i'm full and stop eating (that's so hard!) (getting there)
Don't compare myself to others, enjoy my journey for myself (found so much freedom for that)
Make weekly menu and meals on Sundays (YEAH!)
Finish unpacking our house (need to do the last stuff!)
Clean/garden weekly (love it)
Encourage and read group members' blogs/tweets/updates each day (hopefully 'm doing that!)
Check in with group members to see how they are doing and to update how I'm doing (hopefully i'm doing that)

p90x yoga and tears...

I need to get ready for dinner....we're having Daphne and Caleb over to celebrate Daphne's birthday. I love birthday seasons. So I'm in my workout clothes getting ready to change...and make some swiss chard. Nomity nom nom nom.

I just finished the p90x yoga. I didn't realize how much I needed it. I love yoga and just haven't made it a priority in my gym schedule. I've enjoyed these first four days of p90x...and after yesterday's workout I needed to just stretch and breath. My body was sore and it was tired, it was much more tired than I realized. So as I'm sitting and stretching and going into poses, I noticed something....

Monday nights have been my body attack nights for years...if i'm not sick. this was one of the first times that I was actually feeling my muscles. Some of them are more hidden than others by fat and peanut butter ;). But, there were there. I began to cry. I was overwhelmed by God and God's creation. I've been surrounded by new babies and children who are growing up and I adore them...and I asked one parent, I wonder if your son knows what's going on. We all adore him so much that we just want to spend time with him. I still have those same friends and family members who love me for me and want to spend time with me. I imagined myself as a kid and I wondered what group of my parents' families and friends came around and held me and hugged on me when I didn't even know who they were....and how many of those same people are around and cheering me on now in different ways.

There is no way that I could have gotten to where I am without the friends and family in my life. I was overwhelmed with gratitude.

So, there's me, in our little basement. Dolly the dog just resting and snoring...and me, seriously in tears trying to do different poses. For the first time in awhile I was thankful for the body that God gave me. I mean, I'm not going around being all like I dont' like this body, but I haven't in awhile, stopped and said thank you. I took deep breaths and listened to the instructor on the video. He said that some of the people were really sweaty, that they were having storms all up and through their muscles, but they were breathing.

Sometimes, I need to remember to be thankful.
and breathe.

immediate soreness

I just need to let you know...I'm already sore from today's workout. I did p90x and then ran stairs...some arm exercises...some sprints....all with some of my favorite people in the world.

And.
I am already sore. I mean, REALLY sore. I sort of want to cry a little bit. I don't know if I'm going to make it to bed tonight. I might just fall asleep at this table.

The workout was really great though. I was reminded of my high school soccer practice days...you know when your face is so sweaty and afterwards you feel your face and it's like salty and all.

You know what i'm talking about. It hurts so good.

the cheetos beside me

I just finished my breakfast/lunch (shakeology with peanut butter, a little oatmeal and almond milk)...and Kenley has some of his snacks beside me....almond joy, reese's cups and cheetos...I've eaten a few cheetos, but had to ask myself...why am I eating these?

I am an emotional eater...who eats when i'm happy, sad....and bored. I'm sitting at my computer so I can write my blogs for the week....and when I want/need to be distracted, I go to food.

But today I'm going to eat when i'm hungry and stop when i'm full.

I went to the farmer's market today with a friend/coworker Jeff...and I bought some swiss chard. YUM YUM...I hope to saute it later and top it with a nice piece of fish. I also got some butter lettuce. Nom nom nom. I loved being around the farmer's market because it is a huge collection of people who provide local, close to farm ingredients to make beautiful and whole meals. I get really giddy when I get to the farmers market because I want them all to succeed. ALL of them! Visit your local Farmers Market!

My 31 things...how am I doing?

Work up to 25 full pushups (I'm working up to it. Realized that this morning when I was doing some of the p90x pushups. OMG)

Track food daily (this is one of the hardest ones, when I'm having an off day - notice I said off, not a bad day - I don't want to track. I don't want to see the mess I've made, but because I believe in the process, I will track each day and even share it with you...gasp, gulp)

Try a new recipe weekly (I feel like i'm always making recipes up, I should maybe post them online)

Blog/tweet update daily (check)

Share my goals with friends (check)

Meditate/journal at least weekly (seriously, why haven't I done this? We have a glorious sunroom JUST for that...I will do it this week)

Take before/current/after pictures (took before, need to take current)

Get 7 hours of sleep (getting it)

Incorporate more weight-training into my schedule (getting it)

Learn one old Turbo Kick round (this is harder than I thought. I'm trying to keep a lot of rounds in my head)

Eat at home more often than out (getting there)

Walk Dolly each day (uh, need to be better)

Celebrate successes not weight based (need to do that)

Run local stairs with friends weekly (check...last week was our off week b/c of the holiday)

Increase outdoor running mileage to 5 miles / run ** I can currently comfortably run 3 miles outside, would like to just get back to running around 5 (getting there...)

Finish reading In Defense of Food and Women Food and God (see journal/meditating)

Try P90x weekly (getting there)

Call/email/text my family daily (stole that from Monica's) (fascinating, I've talked to my family a lot these weeks)

Stop hitting snooze (hopefully getting 7 hours of sleep will help, this is also stolen from Monica) (should've said stop resetting my alarm :))

Go to the Farmer's Market on Saturdays (will try to go on the Sunday one)

Stay committed to health even when on vacation/out of town (see last post)

Park 'n' walk when I go to stores (stole from Crocker, this will be hard when it's hot!) (pretty good at that)

Turn my computer/cell phone off an hour before bed (noticed that I'm doing it earlier)

Set health intentions for the summer and year (need to do)

Say when i'm full and stop eating (that's so hard!) (need to continue doing)
Don't compare myself to others, enjoy my journey for myself (catching myself)

Make weekly menu and meals on Sundays (will do on Sunday)

Finish unpacking our house (UM YEAH!!!!!!!)

Clean/garden weekly (UM YEAAAAAH!)

Encourage and read group members' blogs/tweets/updates each day (one of my favorite things)

Check in with group members to see how they are doing and to update how I'm doing (need to do more - that means you'll probably get an email from me soon :)

31 things challenge: Weekends/Vacations

Seriously, let's be honest, I love vacations. I love beaches. I love rivers. I love hotels. Get me out of my routine and I'm a new person. I'm relaxed. And then I sort of get lax on some of my health commitments. I was surprised that I was able to stick to being healthy on my vacation. I still work up early on Saturday and worked out in the hotel gym. I looked at the menus of the restaurants we were going to. We walked around STL instead of driving. We walked up stairs instead of the elevator. I enjoyed my food in good bites. I didn't track everything I ate. I tried not to feel guilty and I feel like I was able to capture part of the purpose of the challenge for me....enjoy the very moment that I am in. I listened to my body and heard it talk to me quite often.

I was in tears during some of Jill Scott's songs. I watched this woman with beautiful natural hair and some amazing curves and she was thrilled to be alive. I want to be thrilled to be alive...on the weekends and the weekdays. I need to marry the best parts of my weekends and my weekdays...relax, grace + listening to my body and watching what I eat/don't eat and figure out why.

31 things challenge: Meal Planning

I find when I make my meals ahead of time, i'm much more mindful of what I eat. I make an effort to use food that we have in the house. This is how it always happens...I resist cooking or preparing food. I look in the freezer to see if I have any Amy's burritos hanging around.


Then when I find out that I've used my backup meals, I go to the pantry...what can I make. So this week, I'll be using the following:

JBSW Spring to Summer Salad:
1 tbps Trader Joe's Hummus

all of this is 5 servings:
cooked Trader Joe's Israeli Couscous
1 Roma tomato
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tbsp green onion
garlic salt
lemon juice
salad greens
SIDE of: baked tofu (LOVE baking tofu, baking the tofu gives the tofu the consistency of it being fried, but it's much healthier.)

I imagine that I'll be using this combination this week. YUM! I just put the salad ingredients in a tupperware, bring it to work and bring it out in servings for lunch. It's light and easy. You could easily substitute another grain for the couscous...and use a different protein instead of the tofu.

31 day challenge: I chopped my hair off

I've written about my hair and desire to go natural. I could go into all of the reasons that I wanted to go natural...but I've written about it a lot. I'll give you a brief summary/overview. I would refer to my hair as not as good as Kenley's. I loved getting relaxers. And then there was a point where I realized that when we have children, I want them to be comfortable in their own skin and even their hair. I wanted to be able to work with natural hair and be comfortable with my own. I went through figuring out what it meant for me to continue getting relaxers...for me, I was done putting the chemicals in my hair. I'm trying to work on eating whole/clean food...food that is somewhat connected to its natural form...I don't get it right every day or even every meal. But I want to be good to this body and my hair and love it in its natural state.

I realized that cutting my hair was a very visible way of saying that I choose not to use chemicals in my hair...well, not some of the bad chemicals that straighten hair. My goal now is to welcome my new hair. I love love love it. It has this cute little curl. I want to learn how to really do my hair and be good to it. And to be good to my body. The way that I want to love my hair, I want to love my body. It's what I have right now and every step of the way is a beautiful part of my journey.

I'm enjoying the 31 day challenge. I realized that my body loves getting 7 hours of sleep. I hit a point where I was trying to get less than 7 hours of sleep and when I would do that, I would hit snooze. :) Now doesn't that make you laugh. So I'm going to go to bed earlier, probably incorporate less tv into my life, and do lots of other things. I'm tracking my food and working on my pushups...those are hard!

thank you mother earth

So today when I was gardening I was struck by the fact that I was massaging the ground. I was working through the soil and incorporating soil and dirt...and digging and planting. It was the weirdest feeling to work with the earth...I felt really connected to the earth in my own journey. We have to put work into our lives, we have to kill weeds, we have to plant, we have to water, we have to care for it...I also understood my friends who love love their gardens, they plan their vacations around the garden. I wanted to spend all of my time with my little plants and see how much they will have grown...

I feel like I'm able to catch the slightest glimpse of how God must adore creation. There's no way to completely understand it of course...but I was just so happy outside and really wanted to be happy with the journey that I'm on...our journey is ongoing and we have to be fully present....what have you done today to be fully present to yourself?

PS I'm getting my haircut on Thursday :)

Health lessons from my dog...

Meet our dog, Dolly. She's between 4-9 years old. Has a heart of gold and is as sweet as can be. We've had her about 7 months!

Since K is out of town and he's the normal dog walker, I've taken on the responsibilities of walking our sweet girl. Sometimes I notice that she is so distracted by every noise and every smell. I've heard that dogs have a sense of smell that is 1000 x stronger than humans. I don't know where I heard that and if it's true. I do know that they do have a stronger sense of smell than I do. On one of our recent walks I noticed that she would literally stop and smell everything possible. She has this beautiful sense of wonder that has me enamored with her. I think we have a lot to learn from most of creation, but for this post...i'll focus on Dolly.

Things that she does that I find are good habits:
- She drinks a lot of water
- She tries to be patient when she eats and she sometimes eats slowly
- She is happy when she's outside and exercising
- She receives what the day has for her
- She explores her surroundings
- She embraces her curiosity
- She loves
- She gets a lot of sleep

I could've just looked at her habits and picked 31 things. :)

31 days til(l) Summer Challenge: Why I'm a vegetarian

So one of the things that people could choose on the challenge was to eat vegetarian for a day. One of my friends asked me why I was a vegetarian. I haven't answered it in awhile. It seems like the reasons vary from day to day sometimes.

I've been a vegetarian since I was 15...so almost 15 years. I would give up meat once a year during Lent...and after one season I didn't incorporate chicken back into my diet. I had a friend who was a vegetarian and I at least had a reference for meat-less eating. So after chicken, I noticed how I felt when I ate red meat. I was always lethargic and felt really heavy. I became that vegetarian. I ate everything that wasn't meat...tons of pasta and junk food. Oopsies. I think when I was in college I began to understand and expand what I could eat as a vegetarian. I incorporated more proteins and tried to eat more balanced meals. There were days that I would just eat vegetarian chili from the ZT Johnson cafeteria...and times i'd eat subway and other times i'd eat cheese pizza. I didn't have a strong grasp of whole eating at that point.

I went to grad school and packed on the pounds. I had a love-hate relationship with Betty Crocker and the neighborhood Coldstone...oopsies poopsies. Moved to Omaha and tipped the scale around 230.



I was still a 'vegetarian.' I started on Weight Watchers. I began thinking more about the impact that my food had on my health and on the rest of the world. By this time I had traveled to a number of our fields..and it's the story we hear often...Americans are obese while the rest of the world is starving. So, those are two aspects of why I'm a vegetarian, health and others. I don't get it right all of the time. I try to choose healthy, whole foods that are hopefully grown somewhat locally, but again, don't get it right all of the time.

I've also incorporating some seafood into my diet. That's the trickiest part. I also love love love animals. I wear leather though...so I'm not a card-carrying Peta member. K and I went to Miami for our honeymoon and I gotta tell ya, I had to have some seafood when I was there...hello Ocean :) So since then I have seafood a few times a week.

If you're doing the challenge, try going veggie for a day...I can give you some really fun websites and recipes, there are so many options. I try to eat whole foods, well-rounded and balanced meals....good grains, veggies, fruits, dairy...I get it all in.

Like I've said though...it's not about what you put in your body...it's what is happening on the inside with your emotions. Deal with 'em, don't starve 'em or gorge them with food....deal with them and be friends with them. They're your emotions, they want to be paid attention to, that's it. They don't want to control you.