It’s time to take back some time. I’ve lost irretrievable time – sucked away into the black hole of technology. Of course, it’s my fault for not managing it better but I am claiming it back. Starting today, Mother’s Day until Father’s Day I am going cold turkey. No Facebook, no Twitter, no personal email and no other social media of any kind during this time. While I THINK there are some business benefits, I haven’t realized enough to warrant the estimated 4-6 hours a week I spend on it – hours I’ll now spend doing other things. Of course, there are some benefits of social media and technology but I think there is a great deal of time suck too. There are three things that inspired my action to go on a technology diet Sabbatical (which also includes a diet from the codependency I have with my cell phone). [Read more…]
Making Chores Managable
Every morning, I stagger out of my bedroom, take a look at my living room and my heart drops. 
Aside from the normal house cleaning one has to do, I’m an animal lover and have seven indoor cats that have taken to using my house as their personal playground. I love them dearly, but I don’t like how filthy my home gets. A home that smells like animals disgusts me and it’s embarrassing to have company in my home when it reeks of pet odors. Because I was raised by a self-proclaimed neat freak, I feel compelled to ensure that the rooms are as tidy as possible… but since I also work a full time job, cleaning house is never at the top of my priority list when I get home at the end of the day. I’ve checked out maid reviews, considered hiring a housecleaner, even setting fire to the whole thing, but I have to admit; I really do like the challenge of maintaining my house myself – despite my hatred for some of the tasks required to do so.
The question is “How do I do it all and still have a life?”
Though I have many undesirable chores, one of my least favorites has to be cleaning the litter boxes. I have one litter box for every two cats that I have. And since I have seven furry felines, I have four boxes that are constantly in need of cleaning at any given time. The best way that I have found to deal with this job is to clean the boxes every single day. As humans, we are creatures of habit. So, I believe that even though it was difficult in the beginning to train myself to be diligent about the litter boxes on a daily basis, now I feel like I’m cheating on myself if I come home and don’t address the boxes.
Most people will just scoop the litter and be done with it, but I actually take the boxes and dump them out completely. After I’ve cleaned them with an environmentally friendly spray, I dry them and put them back onto the floor. I also use a little baking soda in the litter to cut back on any excess odors. I have found that this process becomes less of a chore if I do things to make it less boring. Sometimes I challenge myself to complete the tasks in record time. On other occasions I’ll purchase a new spray or find a new scent, which makes me excited to clean the litter boxes. Personalizing new litter boxes (before they get dirty!) also gives me more pride about the little box area and motivates me to keep the area in tip top condition.
Are We Having Fun Yet?
First, allow me to apologize for not posting recently! No excuses, just a new goal to post at least two times per week. Now for this week’s post…
“He who laughs, lasts!”
~Mary Pettibone Poole
“I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!”
~Louise Bogan
I began running about 2 1/2 years ago. I never, ever thought of myself as a runner. I walked everyday, and I loved it. An online friend turned me on to fast walking and I got fantastic results from it. It was low impact and easy and fun to do, so that was my exercise of choice. Then, one day as I was walking my six-mile course, something snapped like an over-stretched rubber band. I’d torn a hip flexor muscle and it hurt – a lot. The short of it is, walking was never the same again. It hurt, and that sucked all the fun out of it. In addition, before the injury, I noticed that I had to walk further and further to work up a sweat and get my heart rate up. I was already walking for 75 minutes a day, and didn’t know how I was going to keep carving more and more time out for my walks. I started looking around for something else to do. Someone suggested running, and my first thought was, “Only masochists run.”
Me Before Race Time
After all, running is painful, and it’s really, really hard. Why would anyone do it unless they are being chased by large, carnivorous animals? But as I continued to search for a new activity to replace walking, I kept coming back around to running. I loved my bicycle, but the bike path in this town is fairly short so I was bored with the scenery already, and taking to the streets means taking your life in your hands (please, motorists, be kind to cyclists). Aerobics? Please. Workout tapes and treadmills and ellipticals were out, because I longed to be outdoors and quickly got bored with them. And suddenly I asked myself, “Just what are you afraid of?” I immediately came up with a list: I was afraid of injury, of how much pain I’d be in from the impact on my joints, the burning in my lungs, the cramps in my side (I clearly remembered these from gym classes past), the blisters on my feet. And then, once the list of fears was out there, I decided that none of them was really so terrible, and I was intrigued by the challenge of it. I was determined not to let fear dictate what I would and wouldn’t attempt. So, I strapped on some shoes and decided to run a mile.
The first time I did it, I hated it. It took me longer to jog than to fast-walk a mile! And I was hot and sweaty, my feet hurt, and I felt really out of shape – huffing and puffing down the bike bath like a 100 year-old steam engine. It took me a while to even attempt it again. But boredom and a plateau in my weight loss got me pounding the pavement. When I re-visited running I did it with a goal in mind – a friend had invited me to run a 5K for charity – that’s 3.12 miles. I felt it was do-able with a little training, so I set out to train. I had 12 weeks, and was determined to do it. I got myself an iPod, some proper running gear – including cheap, new shoes; I caution you against this. If you are seriously considering becoming a runner, make shoes your first priority, not your last. Anyway, in 12 weeks, I learned to love running. The first 2-3 minutes are miserable, but then your body warms up and gets used to the pace, and you’re off! With my favorite music in my ears, and the endorphins coursing through my veins, I am never happier than when I’m running and I’m in ‘the Zone.’ It’s bliss. The only thing to top it is running in a new locale and taking in spectacular scenery.
(More great pictures & inspiration follow the jump… ) [Read more…]
Giving Thanks for Wherever You Are On the Journey
Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow. ~Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros
Give thanks for what you are now. That’s not easy when you’re not happy with what you are now. But, you’ve got to start somewhere, so why not start with exactly who you are today? That was the first step on my journey towards better health and happiness in my life – getting honest about who I really was, and accepting that as my starting place. That’s something you can do right now
Here’s how I got honest. I was 287 pounds, in physical and emotional pain and I knew I needed to change things. I didn’t know where to begin, so I asked my doctor. My doctor had been telling me for years that I needed to drop some weight, and I got angry and resentful every, single time. It took a lot of nerve for me to walk into his office and say, “Okay, let’s say you’re right, I do need to lose some weight. Where do I start?”
He referred me to a nutritionist. After my first meeting with her, she asked me to start a ‘Food Journal.’ In it, I was to write down everything I ate for a week. She asked me not to edit my food choices yet. “Just eat what you’d normally eat, and write it down after you’re finished,” she said. I bought myself a new notebook on the way home from the appointment, and I was very excited about starting the next day. Then came the morning, and suddenly I was angry. I don’t know where it came from – this defiance, this rebellion. Suddenly I was thinking, “I’ll show her what I eat everyday!” And I went off to the doughnut shop and bought six of my favorites and ate them all, with a quart of milk, for breakfast. And I wrote it all down. Then for lunch, I was feeling guilty, so I made myself a salad. It was a large salad, loaded with cheese, beans, and plenty of dressing, but I felt less guilty about that than I did about the doughnuts. Again, I recorded it all in my journal – this time with measurements. I had two snacks that afternoon – 18 vanilla wafers and two pudding cups, and “a bag of trail mix.” I’m quoting from the journal here. For dinner, I fixed spaghetti. I wrote that I ate a “full plate of spaghetti,” which was a lot.
The week continued on like this. Looking back now, even though I seemed to be eating with a vengeance, I don’t recall feeling as though I ate more in this particular week than I did most of the time. Eating a half-dozen doughnuts was nearly a weekly ritual. I’d just never made note of it before. Two snacks in the afternoon – pretty common for me. I didn’t feel fuller than usual, and I didn’t get a stomach ache from eating like this, so the guilt and shame I felt when showing my journal to the nutritionist at our next appointment wasn’t as much about what I was eating, as how I was living.
[Read more…]