Archive for the ‘Exercise!’ Category

Gaining an Appreciation

October 13th, 2010

Good Day!!

I am just fit to split at the seams from happiness!  Over what?  Nothing really. lol  It’s just a great day to be alive.

I made it through that awful, murky, depressing couple of weeks I was in and I’m now freely floating in the presence of the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

Here’s the prologue to this blog post.  Ha ha… it’s a problog…

It is my goal to portray my life in as real a way as possible.  At no time do I ever intend to project a perfect, problem free life.  My goal is to be empowered within my life and to share all the ups and downs with others who are seeking empowerment of their own.  My goal is to prove that you can have good days and bad days and problems and issues and live a normal life and still be happy beyond words.  My goal is to show that even when it’s not perfect all the time, it still somehow is perfect.

I’ve been dumping on here a lot lately, and I don’t want anyone to think that I’ve gone off the deep end.

This post summarizes my recent downs… and why, with the right perception, they’re actually ups.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

I’ve been feeling a bit off.  Unappreciated.  Down.  It’s been going on for about a month.

Back on September’s New Moon, I set an intention to go within.  I’d intended to meditate more and to keep a more regular journal.   Going within is tricky business because you never can be sure what will come out.  I came out feeling sluggish and tired and unappreciated and taken for granted and on and on…

Last Tuesday when I posted The Screaming Banshee Strikes, I included pics I took of a sticker on the back of a truck on my way to a doctor appointment.  Well, I came home from that appointment with my doctor recommending I have a hysterectomy.  I was completely blown away.  It’s because I’m having some pretty prominent discomfort and I’ve had my tubes tied for 8 years now.  I don’t NEED my uterus anymore and if I’m in pain, he sees no reason why I shouldn’t take it out for some relief.

Wow.  I feel down and now it’s starting to rain on me.

Then, two days later, on Thursday I had an appointment at my family doctor about what’s been going on in my gut since my sorbitol ordeal and he wants me to have a colonoscopy and a complete GI work up.

Yay.

So now I feel like crap and there’s mutiny going on in my body.  Fantastic.  How is it that I sit down and meditate to feel good and just end up feeling shittier and shittier?!  How is it that I intend to love and care for my body and it betrays me?!

But being me… and having had the experiences I’ve had, I know this isn’t the end.  I know there’s more.  I know circumstance is going somewhere with all of this and I know it’ll all be right in the end… so I relax and meditate and focus on loving my body.

Saturday dawns bright.  Alan comes this weekend.  I miss him and it really sucks only seeing him one weekend a month now, but I know he’s getting older and older and I’m only going to see him less and less.  Soon he’ll be off to college and I’ll only see him on holidays.

He’s starting on the varsity football team this year.  My 6′  3″, 220 pound sixteen year old who benches 275. *glow*
So I spent Saturday and Sunday talking to and hanging out with him.  He’s gotten so slim and muscular.  He came walking through the house without a shirt on and I was completely struck by how much more handsome he is than his father was at that age. LOL But don’t tell either I said so.

But Sunday night, after he’d gone home, I was thinking about the conversations we’d had and how much more he’s come to care about his body.  How much he actually enjoys exercise now and how fit he is.

“I wish I had someone to work out with,” I thought.  “It was so much easier to get off my butt and exercise when there was someone to socialize with…”

And then it struck me.  Why not join Curves again?  And THEN I realized that I’d reached the idea that had been struggling to get to the surface.

How do I know for sure?

Because I’ve been taking piano lessons every Wednesday.  I had my first and second, but had to cancel my third.  The following Wednesday, I decided that I just wasn’t able to practice as much as I’d like in between classes and it had actually been GOOD that I had a whole two weeks between those lessons… so that’s what we’re doing as of last Wednesday.  Every other week.

That means I’m now spending $30 a month on piano lessons instead of $60.  A savings of $30.  A membership at Curves is $30 a month.  Everything lined up for me and balanced out before I even registered the idea.  If I was able to be more active in piano, I wouldn’t even have considered doing both.  I was a little disappointed in myself because I wasn’t able to keep up with weekly lessons, but now… standing here looking back… it’s CLEARLY the better scenario for me.

So, I re-joined Curves on Monday morning.  I had a great workout and felt high for the rest of the day.  As I sit here now, on Wednesday, only a few days in, my body already feels different.  Tighter.  I always notice that the jiggle jiggles different almost immediately when I start working out regularly.

This is what I needed.  I feel appreciation for myself now.  For my body.  The cloud has lifted and I feel good.  Motivated.

That’s why I was feeling so under valued and unappreciated.  Because I was under valuing and depreciating myself.  I’ve been trying to get regular exercise forever now and I just can’t seem to do it.  I need it to be social.  At Curves, it is.

And now, feeling revived and empowered, I feel much more capable of dealing with these doctors and their tests and procedures.  It’s not as big of a deal because I’m looking at it all from a different perspective.  I didn’t change my perspective on the issues, but my perception of myself shifted and therefore everything shifted.

I’ll get my colonoscopy and GI work up and we’ll see what we see.  Better to know.  You can’t work with what you don’t know about.  And until further notice…. my uterus is staying put.  Right now I want to focus upon gaining GI health and balance.  I’ll deal with the rest when we get there.

It’s so much less… URGENT in my mind now.  A lot less anxiety around it all.

Life is always working for you… You just have to relax and let it flow.

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New Moon Intentions

August 15th, 2010

Happy Spirit Day :)

I get a special treat on this wonderful Sunday because Mike left at 10:30 this morning, and took both Michael and Eddie to our local, county fair for the day, and they’ll likely not be home until 9 or 10 o’clock tonight.  I haven’t had an entire day to myself since May!  Three cheers for temporary, quiet solitude.

This week will be the last full week of summer vacation for the boys.  They return to school next Wednesday, which we’re all excited about.  It’ll sure be nice to have quiet days again, although I can already tell you that I’m going to miss them.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

I sorta missed the boat on the New Moon this month.  I acknowledged it, but wasn’t yet feeling UP enough to sit at my laptop and write much.  I didn’t set any “official” intentions for this cycle, but I did manage to set some “unofficially” due to circumstances, so I’m going to go over them and make them official.

It is the obvious direction I’m being pulled toward.  If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s to go with the flow.

My official intention is: I want to take this new found awareness of my body and health, and implement greater changes into the lives of everyone in my family.

The habits I intend to practice this month are~

  • Cook lunch so Mike can eat at home for lunch a LOT more.
  • Prepare ALL of the boys’ lunches for school.
  • Eat well with intention and purpose.
  • Take my supplements daily.
  • Riding with the dogs.
  • Get up at the same time every day.

How I intend to implement these changes into my life~

** I think my best bet at hitting the first two will be to cook bigger and less.  If I cook a large enough meal during the day, we can also eat it for dinner and still have leftovers in the fridge that will be good for 3-4 days depending.  If I cook 2 large meals a week, and maybe a smaller one in the evening one night (because some things aren’t good as leftovers and I try to only cook what we eat. Like fish..), then between the fresh food and leftovers, there’s no reason we can’t eat all week.

And some things can be pretty easily morphed into other things.  I made homemade sloppy joes with ground turkey for lunch one day.  Then we ate leftovers for dinner.  The next afternoon, I threw the sloppy joe meat in the crock pot and dumped a jar of tomato sauce on it and left it on low for 4 hours.  Then I dumped in the noodles left from the chicken parm of 3 days ago and we had spaghetti for dinner.

Feeding everybody lunch has been a very daunting task in my mind in the past.  I have to remember that it’s as easy or hard as I want it to be.

** I’m adding eating with intention and purpose again this cycle because it’s not automatic yet, and that’s my goal.  To be more automatically present when I eat.  I still forget and stuff my face mindlessly, but I’m getting much better.  A little more practice won’t hurt.

** I’m also keeping my supplements listed for the same reason as above.  I still miss days and I want it to be more of a habit.

A quick thought on habits.  I heard once that when something becomes a true habit, it will be harder for you to NOT do it than it will be to operate by the habit.  One of the simplest and yet silliest examples I could think of, from my own life is my turning signal.  When I am in my car and turn, I HAVE to use my turning signal.  When I drive down my driveway and am about to turn out onto the road, I use my turning signal.  When it’s 2am and I’m the only car in sight on a back road in the middle of nowhere, I use my turning signal.  I’ve tried NOT to use it, but I will compulsively hit it at the last moment before I go around a corner.  I actually laugh at myself about it.  I want being present and aware to be THAT kind of habit.  When my mind wanders away I automatically and even compulsively flip that turning signal and come back into the moment at hand.

** Riding with the dogs is what I’ve been doing the past few days as I’ve been getting my strength back.  Bandit 4 to 6 miles in the morning and then Abby 4 to 6 miles in the evening.  It’s been good exercise for all three of us and I’m going to stick with it for exercise this cycle.  I find it very peaceful out those times of day too, so I even look forward to it.

** Getting up at the same time every day is important right now because the boys go back to school in a WEEK!  Tonight is their last night to observe our summer hours.  They’ll be up late tonight and then get up at 7:30 tomorrow morning.  That way at 9:30 when it’s time to go to sleep, they’ll actually be tired and ready.  I’m looking forward to having a more productive schedule.  I have to get this one together and walk the walk because kids are copy cats :)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

A quick note on my affirmation that hasn’t changed yet.  I’ve decided not to change it yet.  I like this one.  It makes me smile.

* * * * * * * * * * *

My affirmation until Monday, 8-24-10 on the Full Moon~
I AM a miracle in motion~ Only more miracles can come from me*

~ OxOxx

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Intending to Love My Body

July 15th, 2010

We just passed a New Moon on Sunday (7-11-2010), and I’ve been thinking about a new focus for this month.  I’ve decided that feeling better in my body will be my goal (through 8-9-2010).

Who doesn’t want to feel good in their body?  Especially this time of year when the weather is hot and we’re covering less of ourselves for the sake of temperature control.

I want to feel better IN my body and ABOUT my body.  I want to focus on the things I love about it.  I’ve actually already started this and have been doing a little work in this area for about two weeks, but it’s been very inconsistent.  Starting today, I want to begin a few new regular habits.

My official intention is: I want to realize the beauty and perfection that is my body so I may love and respect it in kind*

The habits I intend to practice daily for this month are~

  • Get up at the same time every day
  • Walk
  • Look good 2 feel good
  • Take my supplements
  • Eat well & with intention/purpose
  • Drink 8 glasses of water
  • No more than 2 cups of coffee
  • Be aware of my posture and the general state of my body

How I intend to implement these new habits into my daily life.

We must remember that intentions are very powerful things, but if we’re not living in alignment with our intentions, they can fall short fast.  You cannot change if you don’t change.  Duh, right?  But really.  You can intend to create change, but if you don’t initiate the change, it cannot happen.  In other words, you can’t continue doing what you always do and then wonder why change doesn’t come.

This is where I, like many others, fall short with my intentions sometimes.  I know what I want, I just don’t follow through and do anything to initiate the change, or I do, but I don’t sustain the momentum, usually because habits fall off a little at a time.

There must be a plan.  That’s what you would do with anything else in life you wanted to move toward.  You would make a plan of action.  That is exactly what I am going to do to ensure my own success.

First, getting up at the same time every day.

I’ve been having some sleeping issues lately and I know it’s directly related to my body and how I feel in and about it, so a regular waking time in the morning is going to be essential in my success.

This is also why I am cutting my caffeine intake down to two cups of coffee per day.  And no caffeine after 3pm.

I’m going to walk.

I feel so much better when I get regular exercise.  I have a hard time just walking though.  Somewhere in my head there’s a voice saying that if I walk, I might as well run or that the walking isn’t making any difference when I know darn well that it is.  It can be easy to talk ourselves out of exercise, but walking is easy, doesn’t take a lot of time, and I’m operating on a “No Excuses” train of thought this month.  I’m going to sit down and get down a couple affirmations that I can apply during my walk too.

Look good 2 feel good!

After a morning walk, it’s natural to go freshen up, especially in the summer when sweat isn’t only associated with physical exertion.  This is where “Look good 2 feel good” comes in.  When I put a little effort into my appearance, it completely changes my entire outlook.  However, often if I’m not leaving the house, I’ll stay in sweat pants all day.  I don’t want to add to an image of laziness in my own head.  Just making the extra effort to look nice makes me feel better, regardless of what I do that day.  Besides, it’s nice to be able to walk out the door at the drop of a hat without having to wear one.

I am placing my supplements in the area where I sit to brush my hair and don my necklace and earrings, so it will become part of this daily process.

To ensure I’m drinking all 8 glasses of water, I’ll pre measure and refrigerate it before bed so it’s cold and good to go in the morning.  I’m also keeping a cut up lemon in a container in the fridge so it can be readily added to my water.  I LOVE lemon water!

I want to make a more regular practice of becoming aware of my posture and the state of my body.

My upper back goes out a lot and I get a lot of tension and stress in my neck that brings on headaches.  I want to not only become aware of my posture, but I want to sit straighter on purpose and recite a healing affirmation with it.  I’m thinking something like “Relaxed, aligned, and feeling fine!”

I’m need a cue to become aware, and I was thinking maybe a bracelet or some such thing that I can use to remind me when I look at it or touch it or something like that.  I’m open to suggestions :)

Eat well with intention/purpose.

Last but most certainly not least.  I am keeping more fresh fruits and veggies in my house.  I am cooking good quality and good tasting food for my family.  This is incredibly important.  I do this on a regular basis already, except for the extra snack foods in my life.  For this month I’m eliminating them.  Well, not eliminating snacks, but DEFINITELY making some different choices, like walnuts with a little dark chocolate instead of the Snickers bar.  Snickers really satisfies my ass… literally.

One down side of cooking and eating really great food is having it taste SO good, in fact, that you eat roughly three times what you should.  I am guilty of this often.  I love food.  I know it’s not AS bad that what I’m overeating is garlic olive oil sauteed asparagus, but that’s still a lot of extra fat and calories.  Not to mislead you into thinking I’m some oddball who only overeats vegetables.  If it tastes REALLY good, I will eat too much.

I’m going to start by making sure that at least 3/4 of my plate is filled with food that originated from the ground.  Then, when I eat, that 3/4 is going to be what I eat first and foremost, because I may be full and eat less meat by the time I get to it.

The intention and purpose is my favorite part.  I try to do this, but forget and chat at the table and lose all track of what I’ve been shoveling into my face.  I will take care to be more present when I eat.  And no more second helpings.  I mindlessly eat when I go for seconds.  I will be sure to taste and enjoy my food, and pay close attention to signals I may be receiving from my stomach.

So that about wraps it up.  I’m going to keep a journal through this.  Just deciding to do this and going into it with a plan of action has me feeling better about myself already :)

* * * * * * * * * * *

My affirmation until Sunday, 7-25-10 on the Full Moon~
As I focus upon being happy, all other joy filled things in my life expand*

~ OxOxx

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