Friday, January 30, 2015

Becoming My Best Self in 2015: Simplicity, Meditation, Surf City, and Other Random Thoughts

This week I feel compelled to just list random thoughts that have been spinning in my head as I think about this past week and all my accomplishments and ideas.  I think they all apply...although work has been so busy this week that I just feel like doing a huge brain dump right now....

Here are my three goals for 2015, in case all of my loyal readers forgot (LOL):

1.  Finding My Optimal Body and Race Weight
2.  De-Clutter the "Space" I Occupy in This World
3.  Being More Inspirational and Supportive to Others


And now...let the brain dump begin...

1.  I'm not gaining weight, but I'm not losing weight either right now.  Could be the carb loading for Surf City.  Could be the late night snacking that I'm doing with the hubby.  Last night I even said to him, "we have to stop eating after 8pm" and he said "no, WE don't.".  I think I am the one who needs to stop eating after 8pm.

2.  I mentioned the carb-loading.  It's going okay.  A little different than the way I carb-loaded before.  I used to use a very specific menu plan and kept my calories around 1700.  This week, I'm trying to be more like 1400 calories, but I'm eating SO much more whole foods most of the day.  Lots of fruit.  Lots of salad/smoothies.  Lots of quinoa.

3.  Speaking of smoothies - wow, what an awesome smoothie week!  I had a smoothie every day this week!  Four varieties, essentially.  My favorite clearly is the frozen banana, almond butter, almond milk, Chocolate PB2, chia seeds, and vanilla protein powder.  I even have Charles trying them, so this is great.  Next week I want to incorporate more berries and greens into the smoothies (we'll see if Charles still likes them then, LOL).



4.  Even though we had a weakness over the weekend and had both fish and burgers (DANG IT, that's why i am not losing weight!), for the second week in a row we have done menu planning and food prep on Sundays.  This week we had some wonderful dinners.  My favorites by far were Charles' roasted pepper and black bean casserole and the Pasta Alla Norma.  I cooked the Pasta Alla Norma and was super proud.  Who knew eggplant could be so tasty???

THIS is the Pasta Alla Norma!!

5.  Courtney Carver shared an amazing blog post this week:  25 Meaningful Things You Can Do in 30 Minutes or Less.  It was awesome, so inspiring.  I immediately signed up for "Blank Page" and today wrote 250 words towards something that might be a short story or novella later.  I'm not telling you what it's about though.  That will come later.  I also reflected big time on how far I've come with de-cluttering.  I still have more to do, but I DO have all year, right?  Check out this quotation from Laura Vanderkam:


6.  Speaking of de-clutter, #Project333 continues.  This was the first week that I started to feel a little disappointment about what I could choose from to wear to work.  I had selected a pair of brown pants that are technically too big and I don't really like what I chose to wear with.  BUT - a pledge is a pledge and they will stay in the capsule wardrobe until March 31st as planned.  
A weekend outfit, finally!
(sigh) The Brown Pants
Feeling Totally Sassy in the Simple Black Dress!



















7.  HEADSPACE!!!!  I finished the "Take Ten" series and opted to pay $12.99 for a month of new "packages".  So I've done morning meditation every day this week AND have done a Headspace Single and Headspace meditation on running AND nightly meditation sessions using My Meditation Session.  It's so cool!  It's keeping me so balanced and calm.  I think it's safe to say that I have a daily meditation habit now!  I think.  

8.  Getting back to Surf City...on Super Bowl Sunday I will run 26.2 miles for the third time in my life.  My last full marathon was in March of 2011, so it's been almost four years since I've taken on such a distance.  I'm so grateful to Coach Jenny Hadfield for putting together a last minute training regimen that I could lean into as the time got away from me SO fast.  I'm so totally focused on running in Zone 2, my "Happy Place" and being mindful of my breathing.  I think I have a pretty killer playlist and I will be borrowing Charles' Christmas present (a Magellan GPS watch) since my Garmin is kind of dead.  I won't be using PEAR, or Nike+ since I don't want to drain my battery.  I think I'll finish in 5 hours, but I'm shooting for 4:45, which would still be a PR.  I'll be running a mile in honor of 26 amazing people this Sunday, including Peyton Manning....I mean, he's not playing in the Super Bowl this year, right, so he could use a little love :)



9.  And speaking of some love, getting ALOT of love from my Sole Sisters and partners in the Run the Edge Challenge for 2015 miles in 2015.  Liz Wolf and Heather Blakely, thank you for being my virtual running partners and my friends.  So grateful to have your love and support.
Heather is top left, Liz is bottom right.  Check out our adorable shoe tag, courtesy of Liz!

10.  Finally, just feeling so blessed to have time and energy to move daily, blog, follow my morning routine, use the Productivity and Happiness apps, focus on my family, be productive at work, and love my friends.  LIFE IS GOOD!  Until next week...remember my new mantra (courtesy of Kathy Freston)....

PROGRESS, NOT PERFECTION.






1 comment:

AMY said...

Yay! Glad things are going well!