Do Something: Day 5

4:30am.  The phone buzzes.  Yoga time!  Text sent to friend, who was brave and decided to go to early morning yoga with me.  Wakey Wakey!  She answers back, she just got up too.  We argue with ourselves to get out of bed, and eventually the mind wins.  Up.  Go.  Do it.  You'll feel better.  You won't regret it.  And so we do.

I hate ending up at the front of the class right in front of the instructor.  Because that means everyone is looking past little old not super flexible or strong ME, to see the instructor.  But that's where I ended up today.  I tried to not let it bother me.

Literally everyone in the class was pointed in my direction.  I tried to focus internally, listen to the body, ignore the other people's poses and not compare them to my own.  I might get deeper than you in the hip opener, but you can sure hold that plank longer.  No.  Turn off the inner monologue.

Focus on the breath.  Maintain the ujjayi pranayama (yoga breathing, most common breathing technique for the flow yoga stuff.).

Breathe in, arms up.  Breathe out, fold, bend knees if hamstrings demand it.  Breathe in, half way lift, breathe out and fold again, relax the head and neck.  The instructions flow through the room and every person breathes together.  We move together.

We hold the balances and fall out one by one, each doing what we can.  No one judging.  No one laughing at our inability to hold simple poses, or go deep in the folds.  We are each there, each on our own journey, each doing our best.  And that is what matters.  We are one.  We are a clan, moving on our personal journeys, but together.  And it is beautiful.

No matter if you work out alone, if you run in the early morning hours, or lift weights, or find time to hit the gym, join a class...  if you sit in your office doing chair exercises between phone calls, or do some crunches and push ups and jumping jacks in your living room...  know we are in this with you.

We understand that you might not want to get up and do something today.  But we also know how awesome you will feel if you get yourself to do it.  You can do this.  I can do this.  Together, we can make the choices to better ourselves, and step forward once more on our journey to fitness.  To health.

Thank you for joining me!  You all, knowing you are in this with me, keep me going.  Thank you for keeping me accountable.  I'm grateful to each and every one of you for that.

Have a wonderful Friday, and a lovely weekend!  Namaste.

Do Something Challenge, Day 4

Day 4.  How you guys doing?

I'm feeling better, achiness-wise, today.  Not sure if that's because last yoga practice was yesterday in the morning or what...  but I will take it.  :)

I found this morning I woke up early, well rested and ready to go, and even got dishes and laundry done before work.  Just did my work shift and picked kiddos up, and have a yoga class I'll need to leave for in about an hour.  It's one of the harder classes, like Tuesday was, and I'm looking forward to it.

Should be a good night!

But today, on a slightly different subject, I've been having thoughts about our food choices during our little experiment here.  We might not feel very full if we eat a lot of junk foods, and there is a good reason for that.  This image shows why that might be.  If we are eating vegetables and fruits, it doesn't take so much of it to fill our stomachs up.  It breaks down to fewer calories per meal, naturally, but we feel full and are satisfied.

The fried foods take up less space but offer up themselves in larger calorie portions, which doesn't work out so well for us.  It might be time to start thinking about what foods we are eating and how that is affecting us.

Keep in mind, what you put in your body is fuel for your work out.  Vegetables, fruits, grains, and easy to absorb proteins are your friend.  The more of those, the better!  If you're going to eat meats, try and keep them lean and in reasonable portion sizes.

Portion control is a big thing for me.  If I am not careful, I can eat twice what I really need to live on.  Eat to live, not live to eat!  Try taking a small portion, eating that, then waiting to see what your body says.  If you are still hungry after 5-10 minutes, have another small portion, but try to take it easy.

Our stomachs are only meant to be about the size of our fists.  If we are constantly filling our plates and eating all of that, how much space must that take up?  We often eat twice what an appropriate portion is, without thinking.  Packaged foods are too big for one person if you use the fist as a guide.  Quick foods and fast foods certainly are.

It is hard to retrain our bodies to know what a proper portion is, but it's essential to eating right and getting our bodies to a happy healthy state.  Next time you make yourself a plate of food, think about the amounts.  It will take time, and you might be a little hungrier at first since your body thinks it needs what you have been giving it...  but give it a try.  It's worth the effort.  Really!  :)

Anyway, it's food for thought, no pun intended.  I will make up a nice little list for you of good documentaries to watch on the subject of food.  I'm a bit of a documentary nut, and am happy to peruse these things for you.  :)

Anyway, gotta go get kids ready for the pool, and get laundry moving again.  A mother's job is never done, as they say!  :)

Do Something! Day 3

Good morning, everyone!

I woke up and dragged myself out of bed this morning.  Achy from the previous 2 days of working out when I'm no longer used to it.  The muscles screamed at me, joints refused to move, but I did it.  There was a sunrise yoga class I could maybe get to if I could get up in time.  It was the only chance for a class I had today, because I work later than my usual shift, so it was then, or never.  Or by myself later, which isn't nearly as awesome.

Don't get me wrong, the home yoga practice got me through years and years of time, but there's something different about everyone in a room breathing together, moving together.  It keeps you going.  You are less likely to allow yourself to give up.  Home is where it's at if you can't make a class, but it's nice if you are able.

Anyway.  So I dragged myself out of bed, didn't get lost on my way to the center this time, and made it there to the giant room full of mirrors before anyone else did.  An older gentleman came in and asked if we were really using this room, and I said I didn't know, but nobody was in the smaller one either, so we set up and started  warming up, just the two of us.

Another girl joined us shortly, using one of the borrow mats they have laying around.  They squish and are not sticky, but they're certainly better than the hard floor!  But when another woman wandered in and asked if we knew the instructor was home with food poisoning, we had a choice to make.

Get up and go home, or do something.  I entertained going home and enjoying a cup of coffee in the early morning quiet.  For about half a second.  And then I returned to my half lotus forward fold I was in when she entered the room.  The woman graciously offered to talk people through her Tai Chi stretch she was going to do, and the borrow mat girl joined her for a while.  Another woman wandered in when I was finishing up my second Sun Salutation round, and we all set to work on our own.

Together in the room, the small group of us, each working at our own pace.  I moved through my poses, fell out of silly ones that I should really have down by now (Tree pose?  Really!?), and challenged myself to try wheel and head stands again.  I managed wheel for almost 2 full breaths before I needed to let it go, so that was exciting.  I've been afraid of that one due to the shoulder rotation and my injury, but it feels fine.  :)

I had to move over to a wall for the head stands so I wouldn't fall over, but I am definitely still working on that and need the wall.  The older gentleman watched my third headstand for a moment, taking note of how I was using the wall as a prop, and went back to his own thing.

Overall, I am really glad I made myself get up.  Even though I really did not want to.  I could hardly move, but I knew I would feel better once I was moving in that room.  And I did.  I do feel better.  I still feel achy, like you do when your muscles acclimate to something new.  I'm starving, so it's time to go make a smoothie for breakfast, and I need to go drag kids out of bed...

But that was my challenging day 3.  I know you don't want to do it today.  I didn't either.  But just do it.  Make it happen.  You'll be glad you did.  :)  I promise.

Do Something Challenge: Day 2!

Do you feel the burn?  I sure do.  But it's a happy sort of ache.  It's the "I feel good" ache.  :)

This morning I made a pineapple blueberry smoothie with chia seed and raw almond-cashew milk.  I should have added a little agave.  It was not as awesome as yesterday's smoothie, when I didn't forget.  :)  But I also had avocado toast this morning, so that does make some difference.

Avocado toast, by the way, is smashed up avocado smeared on toast (I like whole wheat bread for this), and then you salt and pepper the tops of the avocado.  Amazing, filling, and good for ya.  :)  Good stuff.  Give it a try.  I usually use about 1/2 an avocado per 2 slices of bread.  If you store the other half of the avocado with its pit, it doesn't get as brown and yucky looking.  By the way, that's just oxidation and it is still perfectly fine to eat.  Just like apples.

I'll have to get a pic to share when I make it again tomorrow.  :)

Anyway!  Eating well, good choices, and making time to DO SOMETHING.  That's my plan.  So tonight I will be going to a multi-level yoga class and pushing myself a little while the kiddos go swimming.  And then we'll head home and have something for dinner.  I'm planning something, will make it up and have it ready to eat when we get home.  There will be no greasy fast food caving!  :)

How are you all doing?  Well, I hope.  Don't push yourself too far!  Just do what you can, and then try to do a tiny bit more.  :)  You will get there!

Do Something Challenge: Day One: My plan.

I'm up!  I'm up!  GOSH, Mom!  Stop nagging me!

Getting up and getting ready for work right now.  Kids are off school for the holiday, so I don't have to run them out the door for once!  Think I'm going to go make myself a smoothie for breakfast instead of making coffee today...  and I need to toss some potatoes (cleaned, poked, wrapped in foil) into my crock pot.

I have big plans for dinner, I tell you.  Leftover soup I made the other day, Spicy Peanut Eggplant, time consuming and a little more complicated than I usually do, but totally worth every single minute!!  And vegan, to boot.  :)

So there's that, but then I am going to debate between 2 levels of yoga classes for this afternoon.  I could probably do the intermediate-advanced one on a good day, but I'm not sure how "back in the saddle" I am there.  Probably will start with the beginner and see how I feel after an hour of that.  :)

Up, moving, time to run.  Don't forget to find your 15 minutes of time to DO SOMETHING!!  :)

Long time no see!

Hi guys!  It's been too long!  Hope everyone is doing well!

I'm popping back in for a couple reasons!  First off, I just started this little facebook group to go with the blog, for people to pop over, ask questions, link stuff, that sort of thing.  You can find and join it here:  Whole Food Fitness Group.  It's a closed group so only members can post or see what has been posted, and I, the crazy Becca chick, am in charge of that.  Play nice and you will be welcome!  That's about it.

And secondly!  I'm finally feeling better after my stupid shoulder and back saga of irritation.  So I'm trying to get back in the swing of things.

I'm going vegetarian again.  Officially.  For the first time in years.  I think I'm finally in a place where I can do it healthily, officially, without allowing it to be an excuse to slip back into eating disorder land.  I used to allow it to just not eat when "there were no options."  There are always options.

Anyway!  So, there's that...  BUT I'm also starting a challenge for myself.  Starting tomorrow, 1-21-13, I will be challenging myself to do something.  To move.  To yoga, or swim, jog, do jumping jacks...  do SOMETHING.  Every day.  For at least 1 month.

I think officially this will be a February challenge, but I'm starting it now while I have the momentum going.  I want to do this.  It is time.  :)

So, who is with me!?  You want to move, you know you do.  15 minutes is nothing.  You spend less time getting ready in the morning, getting changed for bed.  You can do 15 minutes.  :)  There are 15 minute yoga videos over on the Yoga Challenge tab, if you want to do that.

The theory is, if we move our bodies, just a little, it will feel nice.  We will like how we feel, and we will want to continue.  And if we are having an "off" day, 15 minutes might be enough.  But most days?  We'll go longer.  We'll run more.  Do another lap in the pool.  Finish that yoga class.  :)

We can do this.  I believe in us.  But I know the power of accountability, and that's why I started the group.  To keep in touch.  To post happy little things, remind each other to keep at it.  Because alone we can give up, but together?  We are strong.  :)

LET'S DO THIS THING!

Update! Been a while!

Hey there!  Been a while since I posted anything here really.  A lot has been going on!  So!  Update!

Injuries:  I hurt my shoulder at work.  Strained rotator cuff and strained AC joint.  Not a good combination.  Ended up doing physical therapy and seeing doctors for 2.5 month, taking pain meds every day just to get by, etc.  Not very much fun.  But I have been released from that and seem to be doing well.  I even ventured to go off my pain meds to see how I could do without, and am med free (other than my thyroid tablets and my vitamin supplements)!!!  YAY!!!

BUT, with all that med stuff going into me, I felt awful.  I wanted to get it all out of my system, so today makes day 4 of just juice (and occasional almond-cashew milk), and I'm doing well.  It's day 6 overall, but I did eat the first two days, if not a ton.

Juice fast:  Is going really well!!  I wasn't even tempted at the movies last night to sneak a popcorn or have some candy or soda.  Not a bit.  I brought juice in a jar to refill my travel mug, and my husband informed me while I was pouring more, "That stinks."  Thanks, hon.  LOL

Back pain:  Doing better.  I was working too much last week to get in for adjustments, so not feeling AWFUL is amazing.  I am going to try and get back in there next week, but we'll see how work pans out.  I should be able to fit at least one in there...

Yoga:  The shoulder injury made it so I could not yoga really at all.  No pressure on shoulder.  No pressure on arms.  I did some basic seated bends and sat in half lotus while reading and all that like normal, but nothing involving arms.  I'm going to be doing another personal yoga challenge once my juice fast is done.  I feel it's best to wait to do that first, not together, at least for now.

Work:  I switched departments!  I'm no longer in a food area, I've moved to the pharmacy, and am studying to get my Pharmacy Technician's License.  I have to take a test and pass soon so I can stay back there.  It's a little intimidating, as you have to pay to take this test, and if you fail, you have to wait a few weeks before you can take it again.  NO PRESSURE!!!  I just need to take the time and study, and then take the time and GO DO IT.  I'm not super worried, as long as I prepare for it.  Just have to find time.  A lot has been going on, and people have been on vacation over the summer, so I've been working a lot more than my usual rest of the year schedule would be.

Things will settle down soon enough!

My 11th wedding anniversary is coming up!  It's on the 11th of the month, and we need to do something fun!  Too bad the actual day is inventory at work, eh?  LOL  That figures.  Gotta figure something special out, since this 11th year on the 11th thing won't happen ever again.  :)

Anyway, so that's that!  Despite some setbacks, still here, still trying, and doing what I can!  And really, in the end, that's all that I can ask for.

Namaste!

Becca