word wrecker

Goal Post #16 intention: slaying the sugar monster For the month of February I am cutting out dessert of any kind. No cookies, cakes, candy, ice cream, etc. and for good measure I'm throwing in juice because it's practically straight sugar anyway. My sweet tooth has been out of control since  October and what better month than the shortest to kick the habit? Oh how little we mortals know about our future. Foreseeing this goal, I made sure to finish any remaining treats in our house before February 1st and made it a point not to order girl scout cookies this year. This morning there were six, count 'em, SIX boxes of girl scout cookies open in the breakroom for everyone to share. Turning away from those thin mints took literally all of my self-control today. But I did it, so I guess this is really happening. farewell sweet friends!

Goal Post #15 follow up This month has been instructive and humbling. After a bumbled start, I managed to complete every-other practice the rest of the first week. This wasn't bad- more yoga than in the entire month of December and I felt the difference right away. It still wasn't great. My attitude toward yoga was surprisingly hostile considering exercise outside wasn't an option and how much I miss it when I fall out of practice. I caught myself thinking "I don't wanna" on the regular that first week. How much can I miss yoga? Starting in grad school I've had entire dreams about just doing yoga if it's been awhile. My mind will literally try to make up for something my body isn't doing often enough. This also happens with bike rides - I'll have intricate dreams about riding sections of the  monon  and wake up wishing for spring. The second week was much better. I completed almost every practice on time and Nic even joined us one day. M...

Goal Post #15 intention: yoga, part 3 For the first goal post of 2019 I'd like to set expectations. Unlike the previous fourteen goal posts, from now on each month will have one goal with two corresponding posts - an intention and a follow-up. Each monthly goal will either be about adding a positive habit or subtracting something less positive. For example, January will be about practicing yoga more often while February might be about consuming less processed sugar. For my latest yoga goal, I'm participating in another series with the virtual group from July . Predictably, th is first week has been insane. New Year's day I woke up running low on sleep but thinking I could squeeze in a practice before driving ninety minutes to my aunt's. Yeah, that didn't happen. Then I spent the night at my parents. My sister and her family are in town this week, we didn't have any other time together, and I work the closing shift on Wednesdays so I had extra time to get ...

Goal Post #14 Last summer Nic's mom said “I like how you’ve been doing things gently” and the word dovetailed perfectly with showing myself kindness. Being gentle means listening to my body. Pushing myself, but not so hard I get discouraged. Sometimes it means agonizingly slow visible progress but surprisingly quick achievements in areas I didn’t anticipate. (The day I moved our super heavy coffee table by myself without thinking about it was pretty cool.) Sometime in August, my weight loss stalled and hovered around 30 pounds down for ten weeks. That was more discouraging than expected. After all, this process is about getting healthier and that part was still happening. Maybe I was so close to my goal that failing to see it get any closer week after week seemed like a cruel joke. Speaking of jokes, I was so discouraged I actually took one of those online “metabolism type” tests. With my goal only three pounds away, I wasn’t sure if they could help but thought it was wort...

Goal Post #13 My parents are part of the baby-boomer generation. This group included flower children, making us xennials flower grandchildren. We have gained many good things from the holistic, natural branch of this movement along with frankly, a lot of nonsense. Earlier in this blog I talked about lemon juice and apple cider vinegar helping control my heartburn and how artificial sweeteners cause my blood sugar to plummet. There is no way for me to know if this is widely true for most people or just true for me. Anecdotal evidence is a story about how something worked for some one and not a replacement for multiple medical studies proving something true for lots of people. Sorting through stories to figure out what works for you while listening to established medical findings is part of everyone's health journey. After all, I don't want to be paying big pharma any more than is absolutely necessary. I also don't intend to suffer needlessly from an aliment tha...

Goal Post #12 y oga, part 2 In July, I joined a group of women for revolution - 31 days of yoga . We were spread all over the world, so it was a virtual gathering. We'd all tackle the same video practice each day then discuss how it went and encourage each other to keep it up. Having made so much progress practicing yoga again consistently , I didn't expect the challenge to be esp ecially demanding. HA! It was much harder than I imagined. The freedom of doing my own poses in my own time made following someone else a chore. The instructor's name is Adriene and I groaned or complained at her more once. Plus I missed being outside in summer weather. Practicing in a park during my lunch breaks definitely helped with the second problem. Some of my most successful sessions were during lunchtime because it was the best of both worlds. Exercising outside can get exciting in work clothes with ants, sudden breezes and heat, but for me it was better than a cramped room. Fu...

Goal Post #11 Early this past summer Nic and I decided to get serious about eating less meat. We'll probably never be vegetarians, but eating more vegetable products in general is better for our bodies and hopefully the planet. To get started, I bought a bunch of cheap veggie burgers from Aldi to pre-cook and crumble over salads the next day for lunch. This was a fantastic idea and helped cut down on lunch costs without sacrificing protein intake. For dinner we wanted higher quality so began taste-testing meatless burgers and sausages. After all, it was summer and we love to grill. Right up front I'm going to admit we never found a satisfying meatless alternative to any sausage you eat on a bun. Moving on to burgers. Nic's favorite meatless burger is the FieldBurger because of the texture, salt content and how satisfied he feels after eating. My favorites are Dr. Prager's mushroom risotto and kale burgers for flavor, flavor and flavor. Both of us like th...