Just Kidding!

As with every single other challenge of fitness or health relation I've ever put myself in, it fell to the wayside quickly after starting.  I could blame the fact that the weather went back to the 40's and 50's soon after, or the continual lack of sleep in my life, or the color of my new toenail polish.  In the end, though, I just can't seem to stick to these challenges.  It makes me wonder how I ever did change a bunch of those bad habits of mine.  I still have some I'm working on, but I had a lot more back in the day.  How did I do it then?

It was a give and take sort of thing.  I do remember.  I had a lot of patience with myself, and I knew I would regress, move forward, fall back, move forward, etc, until my habit changed.  PErhaps that's what I need to go back to.  My open-minded patience with myself.  Focusing on a change, a general direction to guide my decisions, and make smaller changes to focus on.  Keep building up my foundations so that my big changes can happen eventually in a smooth, joyful fashion.

It wasn't a total loss though.  I might as well admit openly that I was also dealing with some old eating issues that were really trying to get me down, and instead of letting all that drama start again, I was able to simply get myself back on track in the few days I actually did do the challenge and realign my beliefs with my actions.  My awareness is back and I'm more conscious about my eating decisions, in a good way, not in an obsessive anxiety way.  For the most part I should say.

Another good thing, is that Harry joined a gym that let's him bring guests for free, so that has been a fun motivation for both of us to actually go work-out outside of running around carrying trays at work, which has done wonders for my arm and shoulder strength I must say!  Between biking to work, waitressing, teaching yoga, taking class occasionally, and the occasional random workout, I do have a more active lifestyle than the majority of Americans.  This was always my goal.  I wanted a lifestyle that would be active by nature.

I'm still vegan, just trying to focus on getting more raw veggies in during the day.  I did make a lovely vegan quiche yesterday!  Quite tasty!  I'll try to get a picture up here soon!  It's a lovely 80F in Chicago today.  A good day for a long walk to Lush.  Not too much sun, but enough spatterings of blue to make it pleasant.

Stay groovy

Official Start!

My first day of my little challenge went quite well. I had moments of weakness when all I wanted was a Frtiz's donut, which is vegan and Karyn's sells now right by my work. I refrained, though I did enjoy a delicious almond milk ice cream sandwich at the end of the day. I haven't had an ice cream sandwich in years probably. It was great! I did well. I'm proud and I feel great, which is the whole point!

I started my day with a very short run to the 7-Eleven to return a DVD to Redbox, working out AND running errands! Did a couple more blocks and headed home to pull out a quick at home workout. I felt invigorated and very sweaty! I don't know if you recall from last summer but there is no A/C in my apartment so this hotish humid day got the sweat rolling on the 3rd floor.

After a gloriously cool shower I sort of enjoyed a green smoothie. I kept it thick so I could top it with granola and eat it in a bowl. Texture was off unfortunately, still enjoyable though!

Painted my toes, ate some sprouted toast with "raw" almond butter, made a dressing out of some leftover salsa, chickpea miso, Bragg's Liquid Aminos, and Orange juice and biked to the yoga studio.

Taught my yoga class and popped over to have lunch at my guy's work. A delicious salad. Mostly raw if not all raw. Had a relaxing afternoon, and decided to take Harry to Karyn's Raw for dinner. Let's just say he was not quite ready for that food experience. It was too early! Hahaha! His mind had some trouble wrapping around the whole idea and experience, especially the prices though.

 My evening ended as I taught my evening class, went home, and started the movie Ted! Such a weird funny movie! I'll hopefully be finishing it tonight! 

So far so good!

Eat, Move, Say Challenge

I've been in a bit of a rut for quite a few months now and I decided that my natural wave of motivation and rejuvenation isn't going to come by itself anytime soon this time. I therefore decided to take the initiative and be strong and aggressive (see picture!) to get myself where I want to be by holding myself accountable and making a plan that, I have told myself, I simply have to stick to until I leave for summer camp. I'm calling it my Eat, Move, Say Challenge.

It consists of 3 major categories, which I'm assuming you can guess are Eating, Moving/exercise, and saying/affirming. My plan is to eat 90% raw for the next 16 days, exercise in some way everyday, and say positive affirmations first thing in the morning and last thing before bed.

I need to get myself back to MYSELF and this is how I am going to actively change things up. I'll be holding myself accountable to all of you by blogging about it everyday. I'm sorry if this gets boring to you, but it's mostly for myself, and I need to do this.

The hardest years of your life are the first few years you decide to put an active effort into bettering yourself

Yesterday I taught the most challenging yoga class I have taught yet.  It wasn't the size, as I've taught large classes before, and it wasn't the most advanced class I've ever taught either.  It had someone who had never, ever done yoga before and was trying a heated class as his first attempt.  And there was a deaf gentleman in class, and people of ever skill level.  Trying to balance all of that on top of the guys talking consistently in the back and a very disappointing e-mail from my manager of that studio hanging over my head, let's just say it was hard to keep my focus on the moment.  Sometimes, my hardest moments as a teacher are really being present in class for my students, but I feel that I have cultivated that since I started teaching.  It has become much more about them than about me, so in that way I was happy with how the class went.

The guys talking in the back were the real test of my beliefs though.  Compassion, understanding, forgiveness, and teaching.  Those ideals I had to keep in mind the entire time so as not to feel disrespected as a teacher and take any of it personally.  And then there is the art of capturing their attention without reprimanding them.  AND keeping the rest of the class engaged and feel like I'm giving them the necessary attention.  Let's just say I did alright, but felt drained at the end of it all.  I felt like I had gone through a jungle, a hot wet jungle, and come out a different person.

It did make me remember how we can have certain ideals that are relatively easy to follow in general, but much harder to keep in mind in the moment when we have to act or decide quickly.  Which words do we choose to best communicate our point and who we are and what we believe?  You have 2 maybe 3 seconds to put the words together.  Live your beliefs.  Slow it down and then move forward. It's tough!  And my life is relatively easy!

People who have a lot more going on in terms of old personality habits and better goals and ideals for themselves have to juggle this kind of stuff every single day.  No wonder people are exhausted by the end of the day.  It isn't just work and projects, sometimes it is moving through your baggage and trying to be the best you.  I feel like the hardest years of your life are the first few years you decide to put an active effort into bettering yourself.

This is due simply to the fact that you have to stay constantly aware of yourself, your thought patterns, your reactions, etc. and how you want to direct and change them instead.  Creating new thought and reaction habits is as difficult as carving new pathways for a river to flow.  You are fighting against the easy route. And so it was yesterday.

I was fighting my natural desire to control and make things go my way.  I can be snarky, arrogant, and even cruel in the way I talk to people sometimes.  This is an old trait I can clearly see the roots of.  They run deep, think family habits deep, and changing them takes vigilance and passion.

Yesterday was one of the hardest classes I've taught thus far, but also one of the most thought provoking.  Thanks students for teaching the teacher!

Health and Food Demo!

Source

To follow up from the last post, as I have received some concerned questions about my silence since the follow-up with my Dr., I was told that all is well.  I should cut back on sweets and processed carbs, and reduce my nut intake.  The things I already knew I should do to help myself.  I was also told to be more active.  Again, something I am aware would benefit my life.  Summer naturally helps with the active part of things, but the sugar quitting/reduction is awfully hard for me.  I'm going to focus on eating whole foods when I crave dessert, so dates and fruit sweetened things instead of getting a brownie from Karyn's next to work!  They are gluten-free in their defense....

I'll also be focusing on adding more and more raw foods back into my life as I do when the weather warms up.  In honor of the weather change, I'm teaching another food demo/class on raw foods!  So for any of you who are curious about dabbling in raw foods or just adding some new techniques to your repertoire, then come check it out!

The Next Raw Food Workshop is SATURDAY MAY 18th 1:00-3:30PM at YOGA NOW.  You can sign up HERE by scrolling down to May 18th.

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