Showing posts with label positivity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label positivity. Show all posts

Monday, November 22, 2010

Making Time for What is Important

Image courtesy of Blissful Image
Okay! Let's go through the list I set for myself and see how well I've gone on Day 01:

  • Get up 5.30am prepare a nutritious breakfast and go to the gym for pilates or yoga.
Check! I made my fiance and me a banana, cinnamon and almond smoothie and finished off some beautiful gluten-free sun-dried tomato and baby spinach tarts (thanks to the Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam). Didn't go to the gym - I figured getting a good breakfast and lunches ready for the week was more important!
  • Get out of the office at lunch time for a 10 minute walk.
Check! The other designers and I wandered down around Millers Point to and back before having lunch.
  • Spend at least half an hour a day reading.
Check! I read on the bus.
Check! I walked home from Glebe to Stanmore (for the record, that's about 3kms and I did it in 25 mins) and even ran a few blocks! Hooray!
  • 2-3 hours study Tuesday and Thursday nights.
Oops! Make that Monday and Wednesday nights - and after I jump in the shower I will be getting stuck into some study!
  • To prepare delicious, nutritious meals each day.
Check! My lunch was the envy of all at work today - gluten free tart, some rocket, cherry tomatoes, a little organic sheeps milk fetta and a drizzle of flaxseed and umeboshi vinegar!
  • To blog and journal my experiences at least every second day.
Check! 
  • Spend some time each day to focus, visualise and feel myself achieving my goals and dreams - probably whilst walking.
Check! 
  • To pamper myself with a bath, foot treatment before bed, home facial as often as possible!
I'm just about to hop in the shower.
  • Get to bed early.
Will do! I'm pooped! But in a good way.

Feeling good - happy that I've made the time today to get everything done that I wanted to and I've just prove to myself that it is possible to everything I want to do (and that I can motivate myself to do it). I did think that I was going to miss walking home because I was at work until 6.15 or so, but I was still home by 7.30!

I'm hoping that in a couple of weeks I'll be able to walk or jog the whole way! That's 7kms.

They say the second day is always the hardest. But I think I'm ready!

xK 

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Spooky Turn of Events

Photography by Gabriela Camerotti


Wow! Sunday again, the weeks are flying by and soon it will be Christmas! I can't believe it.

Had kind of an up and down day today. Was woken at 4am by our blender starting up on its own!! Freaky! I thought the fridge or something in the kitchen was about to explode!!

So I slept pretty badly after that and quite weirdly, the shock of the noise conjured up all these strange anxieties, like I need to earn more money - how are we going to save for this wedding? I'm not loosing weight fast enough. I didn't go to the gym once this week - I am a total failure. Was the new hand blender I bought that day missing a part? How was I going to deal with them to get the part! Oh! the stress! I think my heart was racing for about 4 hours.

Really need to work on finding the lighter side of life, learn how to calm myself and take control of my anxieties. Tough gig. So thank you, Blender, for frightening me so. It has helped me create this week's new challenge.

Taking control of things and doing it with a smile.

This goes hand in hand with the book I'm reading at the moment, "Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting" by Lynn Grabhorn. It sounds like your typical, awful self-help book (and it kind of is a self-help book...) but its so light hearted and warm, even my deeply cynical side is loving it to bits. And even if I can implement just one or two things from this book I'll be a much happier person for it.

One thing I always find myself doing is holding on to the past (and not positive happy things) but all the things I didn't do. And these anxieties constantly spring out of thin air, brought on by some catalyst (like the Possessed Blender Demon) and it ruins me for hours, sometimes days.

This week I want to focus on taking responsibility for the little things I can do each day that will help alleviate the 'regrets of the future', the factors that I do have control over, right now, and letting go of those I don't or that live in the past. I love this quote from the book:

The real reality is we have come here to thrive, and prosper, and live this grand human experience in lighthearted joy, not struggle and pain. We have come here to have fun while we learn, to grow without suffering, and to harvest our desires in the absolute knowledge that we can have it all once we learn how to handle our energies... meaning... our emotions.

This idea ties back in with something I read on Wellness Warrior a little while ago about integrating daily habits that make you feel good so here goes my list of daily habits and promises to myself that I want to tick off each and every day this week:

  • Weekdays - get up 5.30am prepare a nutritious breakfast and go to the gym for pilates or yoga.
  • Get out of the office at lunch time for a 10 minute walk - get some vitamin D and to remind myself that there is a world outside and that I am a part of it!
  • Spend at least half an hour a day reading (aside from my study) to broaden my general knowledge.
  • Catch the bus half way home and walk the rest of the way (try 'walking meditation')
  • 2-3 hours study Tuesday and Thursday nights
  • To prepare delicious, nutritious meals each day and to make up a healthy dessert as a treat at least twice a week.
  • To blog and journal my experiences at least every second day.
  • Spend some time each day to focus, visualise and feel myself achieving my goals and dreams - probably whilst walking.
  • To pamper myself with a bath, foot treatment before bed, home facial as often as possible! Maybe even try to do one little indulgence everyday? 
  • Get to bed early.
Ambitious. Yes. But I think these are all good things - not chores - and therefore should be achievable and every day I achieve all those little things that are important to me the less I think I will have to regret or to brood about in the future. Its just about learning to take the time and care I guess?

Okay, I'm off to enjoy the last bit of sun for the day with my fiance and housemates!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Sunny Spring Afternoon

What a beautiful Sunday in Sydney. The sun has been shining, I had breakfast in the backyard and meditated, we had friends pop around for a surprise visit and they brought some beautiful nougat, I re-painted some chairs and now here I am with soft music and the sound of birds chirping flowing through the open window.  I could not be happier at the moment, I feel completely at ease.

This could not be a better start for 2 new things this week: my Nutritional Medicine course begins and so does my 'weekly challenges'. AND I leave for Bali on Thursday!!

So, this week's challenge is to:

Do something active everyday.

I plan to go the gym tomorrow morning for cardio and weights, reformer pilates on Tuesday and Wednesday I will finally get to go back to the Yoga teacher who was such a fantastic inspiration for me in overcoming my fear of handstands a few weeks ago!

Then in Bali I want to make sure I do at least one of, any of the following things, everyday for the remainder of the week:
  • Walking (on the beach preferably),
  • Yoga (also, on the beach preferably),
  • Using the gym,
  • Snorkeling (which I have always been a bit scared of doing...)
  • Swimming, or
  • Hiking.
(A little bit of a side note here: I also really, really, REALLY want to do some sort of a cooking class, I would love to surprise my family by finding somewhere that I can take them for a bit of an un-touristy evening and wonderful cultural experience in Nusa Dua).

This week I will track how I am feeling and then, next Sunday, I will post my updated measurements and an overall review on how felt, etc.

I'm so excited. I feel these goals are totally achievable, because it is just one week and if they work their way into my every day life then that's great, but I'm not putting the usual extreme pressure on myself to achieve the unachievable.

 I already think I know what next week's challenge will be:

Meditate every day for 1 hour.

Where else would be better to do this than on holidays in Bali, huh?

Monday, September 27, 2010

A Little Musing : Battle the bulge

I just went out for a walk in my lunch break because it's such a beautiful day. And I noticed all the people out and about running, power-walking, strolling. Some people are just natural athletes, and I always wish that I was genetically adept at running. A little thought flashed through my mind, "I will probably always have to battle with my weight".

But then another thought came over me, maybe it is terms like "Battle the bulge" that make it so hard to loose weight. Shouldn't it be a joy to look after our bodies and nuture them with good food and exercise?

So from here on in, I will never refer to my self-improvement journey as "a battle" because its not.