Saturday, February 27, 2010

Days 27-30

Hola!
Firstly, some fashion...I bought a dress from Ann Taylor Loft today. Super cute! It is a fun slate color and I grabbed some ribbed navy tights to wear with my suede grey Steve Madden Booties. Maybe add a scarf or a long sleeve tee or turtleneck for school on these crazy cold days. Of course it's 63 today, but it's back to the 30s soon. It might also be my Easter dress. I love dresses. Yes, I do. So much that I also bought a perfect strapless dress at Banana Republic today too. :) 2 dresses. Gray ones. On sale! YES! I paid under $40 for each. I'm totally wearing the Banana one to Spring Awakening at the new Winspear Opera House next month. So sleek and classic... with a fun necklace or some pearls...I LOVE!

PS- guess who was once in Spring Awakening...Rachel from Glee!

Now for the yoga update. I have been swamped this week and hate to admit that I did zero yoga this week (M-F). boo me. I have still been eating pretty well. In fact, I kind of crave fruits now. So I guess the fruit fast has helped with that. I did do 90 minutes of yoga with Janie today (fave instructor at Yogasport). Man it was hard. But it was so good. I felt quite relaxed (well, as relaxed as sweating like crazy and shaking muscles can feel) and really focused today. Mostly because I missed the yoga this week. Meditation is non-existent as well. I just read something about how prayer should be time spent in quiet, listening for God. It is Lent. That would be a great thing to think about right now. So, Todd and I bought a bible study for couples. The Marriage You've Always Wanted. :) And short lessons will be easier to fit into the weekly schedule. I have a feeling that this next Masters class is going to keep me up late most days.

Since '98, my last year at A&M, I've been exercising in some form. I've found that I'm one to think about working out every day. Yep, every day, the thought goes through my head about when I'm going to get to the gym, what class I'll take, or if I'll scratch the gym and go for a run on Katy Trail. Whether I make it or not just depends on the day. Sometimes I get too busy, sometimes I skip it, sometimes I would rather go to happy hour. So do I feel the guilt? If I worked out the previous day, then no guilt. Otherwise, yes, a little bit. Really, I just miss it when I can't make it.

Back to clothing! My in-laws went to Vancouver with some friends for the Olympics and brought back some souvenirs for us. Here's my current favorite jacket right now (literally, because I'm wearing it RIGHT NOW). I wear it all the time. And the popular red mittens are SO warm! Plus it's just fun to wear mittens. Thank you, John and Jody!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Days 21-26

YOW.
Fruit fast.
3 (T H R E E) days of fruit?
ONLY fruit?
What?
Well, ok. I love fruit. This will be easy.

OK, I love fruit for breakfast and as a side dish for lunch.
I do NOT love fruit for dinner. How the h-e-double hockey sticks do I do this?

So at our meeting we talked about different ways to fix fruit. AND that anything with a seed inside of it is considered a fruit for this fruit fast. So I left deciding to splurge at Whole Foods. Might as well get the good stuff!

1. Make "guacamole" with avacado, tomato, and lime juice. I added pepper, and it wasn't bad. I missed the salt and garlic and onion and cilantro, but I was so happy to be eating something other than an apple, orange, or banana (that day's lunch), that the "guac" was welcome in my belly. Used cucumbers as my "chips." It was ok.

2. Grill bell peppers, zucchini, & squash with some olive oil. This warm yummy meal SAVED me on days 1 and 2.

3. Make a soup with butternut squash. Sounds so good, but I didn't know how to do this one.

By day 3 I was doing all right. I had a fruit salad at the mall on day 3 (we took the kids to see The Lightning Thief, and I picked every item with a seed inside it for my Snappy Salad in the food court. Without dressing, it was surprisingly tasty! It had cranberries, mandarin oranges, cucumber, banana peppers, apples, currants, raisins, grapes, pears, ...seriously, anything with a seed or obviously a fruit went into my bowl. I was not missing out on any sort of sustenance!

I did yoga in the middle of those days and found myself a little light headed. They said to take it easy when it got hard, and I took advantage of child's pose several times, which is unusual for me. Nevertheless, I survived!

Since then I have noticed that I don't WANT anything heavy. It has only been 3 days, but I liked how light I felt that the idea of super heavy foods is a turn off.

Now, remember the La Duni bread pudding for breakfast? You bet I had that the next morning. It's topped with fruit! (and comes with bacon but hello! I deserved those yummy salty slices of meat!)

Days 13-20

The week's focus  was "Equanimity" - trying to calm the "tapes" that play in your head and allowing yourself to calm down enough to be still.

I went to Austin for work (teacher conference, yay!), and I did do one morning of yoga in the hotel fitness room. 5 guys on treadmills and me in my orange "Shine On" tank top with pink yoga pants. I thought, "I'll just jump on the treadmill too...that will make me stick out a tad less." But heck if I let some dudes push me off of my mat! I woke up early to do YOGA. So yoga I did. I went through my sun salutations and broke a sweat for a good 20 minutes or so, and I even did 15 minutes of quiet meditation while my roomie was in the shower. It was pretty darn good for being out of town.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Days 9-12

Day 9
I did it! I went to 6am yoga, AND I did a HAND stand (with teacher assistance), and it was amazing. I was thinking about how scary it was at first, and then I started thinking positive thoughts. "I am so strong! I am holding my whole body up with my arms. The world is not so intimidating upside down. Actually, it's a little comical." Then I landed right side up, back on my feet, and I gave a little chuckle over the joy of doing a hand stand. Remember when you were a kid and did hand stands all the time? And you'd fall and you'd do another one and fall and do another one? Seriously! (actually, not serious at all, huh? but fun and lighthearted and without care....)
Meditation - 15 minutes - check!

Day 10
Todd and I have invested in a cleaning lady once a month, and we LOVE her. Really, for a low price per month, we get to leave and have breakfast together (or go to our separate gyms for a work out - this week it was breakfast at Lucky's), and then come home to our beautifully cleaned, dusted, vacuumed, condominium. It's lovely. That alone is joy and happiness in my book.

Tonight we went to a baby shower for friends who are due in 20 days! So, I ate baby shower appetizers, baby shower sandwiches, baby shower cake, and a baby shower fruit tarte (it deserves the "e" on the end because it was quite fancy). I also had baby shower wine and baby shower coffee. Hey, when in Rome!

I did have oatmeal, eggs, and bacon for breakfast, and I'm good at stopping when I'm full. I had half of the eggs and half of the bacon. I love oatmeal, and one of my favorite breakfast things to do is search around Dallas for yummy oatmeal. Dream Cafe has good oatmeal and Corner Bakery's is tasty. Breadwinners is a winner for sure, and I also like La Duni's Bread Pudding (wait, that's not oatmeal). Oatmeal reminds me of my Grandmother, and that is what I would label as "wholesome."


Meditation - check!


Day 11
Yoga at 9 am, followed by another "wholesome" meal at Damon's Cajun Soulfood Cafe (it's at Abrams and 360 for all of you Arlington residers.) This sweet family cooks up a meal that you will remember. Mom wanted to have her birthday lunch with some shrimp etouffee and fried catfish, so we enjoyed a delicious meal at this quaint little place. Please visit if you're in the mood for some cajun cooking! Or peach cobbler....oh, love.

On Sundays, we participate in the music liturgy at our church. Todd plays percussion and I sing (and occasionally play the flute). Todd stayed home to watch all of the Superbowl in real time, but usually we both make it if we are in town. It's one of the highlights of my weekend. Today, the Psalm was just beautiful, and I got to sing the harmony (my favorite part) to our new cantor, Allie! She has a gorgeous voice and a lively spirit. :) Cheers to you, Allie J!

ps- Go Saints! We hosted some friends for the game, and Todd grilled burgers and dogs. Yum! And I'm just SO happy for New Orleans. What a special city.


No meditation - Can I count Mass?


Day 12 
Monday.
Aaaaah!
I am STILL working, and it's past midnight. No yoga, no meditation, no breakfast, and I had a burger for dinner. At least lunch was healthy: turkey sandwich, no cheese, grapes, and smartfood popcorn or whatever that black bag brand is - it's good, so what evs. :)
Tomorrow I go to Austin with my team of teachers. 3 of us are presenting at the TCEA (technology conference for educators). We all ran around like chickens with our heads cut off today. I was there until 8pm. Then I got home, ate the YUMMY yet non-healthy burger (with cheese; may as well) and then continued to munch on white fudge dipped pretzels and chips (sun chips, but still). Oh well. Here I am writing. I still need to write a How-to sheet for our presentation, pack, and sleep. And how shall I do yoga while I'm in Austin? Now there's a challenge. This 40 Day thing is perfectly timed.

Yes, I'm bringing my yoga mat with me.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Days 5-9

Days 5-7

On Sunday, I did not go to yoga, nor did I go on Monday. On Tuesday, I went to the suggested 6:30 class before the meeting at 8, and class FLEW by. Wow. And I was like, "Yeah! This is awesome...me and 45 other people sweating it up in class and "om!" and I love my new yoga knee shorts!" (having cute new work out clothes does something for me. Check out Lucy. Great sales too. Seriously, it was probably my favorite class to date just because of how many people were in there. It was packed. I even forgot to bring my small towel in and totally didn't need it. (Not that I didn't NEED it; I was crazy sweating-- I just didn't MISS having it.)

So at the meeting, I learned the following:

1. About food
I eat great meals on days that I go to yoga and I eat not-so-healthy meals when I don't. For example, Sunday, no yoga = chicken fried chicken at Snookie's. and mashed potatoes. and gravy. and onion rings. OK, so I didn't eat ALL of it. That would have been just ridiculous. So I took the leftovers home, thinking that Todd could have it for lunch on Monday. And then I was awaken with terrible stomach pains and let's just keep it to "stomach pains." So I KNEW I wasn't going to eat the greasy, yummy leftovers for sure. But he didn't take it to lunch. And I didn't go to yoga on Monday. Yep. I ate the leftovers. Week 2's focus is to incorporate more fresh foods. When Todd and I cook, we are pretty healthy meal makers. He's a great cook, by the way!

2. About yoga practice
I will justify not going to class with my Masters class and homework. I am in an online program through Lamar University for my Masters in Educational Technology. And it's a great excuse. (cue violins) I'm SO busy. I have SO much homework. I stayed up SO late. Yadda yadda. Yes. This was my sad excuse. And of course, I waited until the last minute to do the work and it never would have gotten in the way of a yoga class in hindsight. Therefore, I MUST schedule them ahead of time...online works (yogasport has a way to check in early--brilliant for accountability!), but emailing my group works better. I have done so, so let's see how this week goes.

3. About meditation
I totally blew it off last week. Ok, I meditated once for 5 minutes. Not once, as in 1 day. That would be two times at 5 minutes each. Oh no. 1 time on 1 day. Five total minutes. All week. Wow, Rina, you don't have time for yourself 5 minutes in the morning and evening? Angela was giving us tough love this week, which apparently, is what I needed. And the idea of not making time for myself...I can go on about how I could use another few hours in the day, but honestly, how much of that time do I spend online window shopping? It's more than 10 minutes per day, let me tell you. Plus I actually FELT like something was missing. I think it was meditation. And I don't even know "how" to do that yet. Must buy book. (None available on Amazon? I've already tried Half-Price Books.) By the way, the 40 Days book incorporates a lot of different religious practices, especially Western religion, including Christianity, to format it to the American audience. It references stories and traditions from different religions. I was happy to see that it was not biased towards any one religion. Thumbs up!

4. About excavation questions
So our book has "excavation" questions at the end of each chapter. I read ahead for the meeting and started answering them. I learned that when it comes to deep down thoughts, I'd rather ignore them. They are quite personal and eye-opening. I have thought about the answers but haven't written anything down yet. As if writing them would cause some sort of stir in my life. Well, that's probably what it's meant for, so there's a goal for this week.


Days 8-9 (Wed/Thu)

I did it! I meditated for 10 minutes in the morning and evening! I sat on the top stair in the morning, legs crossed onto the next stair down, hands on my knees facing up (a cool priest once said to think of hands up to mean that I'm ready to receive God's love...like it), and I concentrated on breathing. If a thought entered my brain, I'd try to let it go and then I'd start over with concentrating on my breath again. 10 minutes goes by really fast when you have to keep starting over.

At night I tried the sitting-on-a-big-pillow thing. I used 2 pillows, lit a candle and went through the same exercise. Again, I had to start over again and again with letting go of thoughts - my "tapes" that run through my brain about worrying about my family, anxiety about whatever, to-do lists. Maybe I need more time. Ha! That would be ... maybe I shouldn't comment on that until I find out.

Yoga: 75 minutes - great class
Nutrition: (B) coffee, orange; (L) PBJ, grapes, baked lays, water; (S) 1.5 birthday cookies (kids bring cookies when it's their bday- oh how I love you, JD's Chippery); (D) Todd's beef lo mein (New recipe...so good! And besides the pasta, pretty healthy!)  Mich Ultra, green tea (I have one almost every night)
Meditation: 20 min

(Thursday)
I did not meditate this morning. I'm in a rush on rainy days because EVERY kid gets dropped off at school on a rainy day. Nobody walks. Well, that's what it feels like. Since there is no bus system, carpool lane is heavy with cars dropping off kids. I did find a new route to escape the Binkly left turn on Hillcrest, so yea for me! For lunch I had 2 tacos from the light plate (the light plate is a dish that has to fit into some measure of calories, so I'm assuming is light, meaning healthier than the other hot food line) and a bowl of chicken tortilla soup (it's to die for in the school cafeteria- super cheesy- it was a splurge). So, yeah, ok. Not very fresh, not very healthy. However, this week determines that there are wholesome foods. Example: Grandma's cookie. It's homemade and gives you that nurturing satisfaction of homemade and knowing who made it with love, as opposed to the store bought packaged cookie. I like that idea. Was the soup wholesome? Yes? Ok. Not really. But it was good. :)