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Happy Life!

By on January 3, 2012 in blogging, family, holiday

Wow, can it be that I might actually start posting on a semi-regular basis again?!  Truth be told, I’ve missed this.  It’s totally selfish, but I love writing my blog.  It helps me process my thoughts and feelings.  And it helps me connect with all of you, which might not sound selfish, but really is because I get so much out of the community of people in this health/fitness/weight loss blogging world.  So no promises, but I think I might be back more often now, so long as nothing goes totally crazy in my life.  I’m even *gasp* starting to comment on blogs again – though rest assured, I’ve been reading all along!   You all have kept me company (thank God for iPhones!) during late night feedings since this baby was born, whether you knew it or not!

How were the holidays for everyone?  We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with my family.  If you know us, you know that “just us” is still a handful – my parents, my sister and her family of 6 (her, her husband, and FOUR kids ages 1.5 to 16!), my brother, me, hubs, and Alana.  So even a “quiet” family Christmas is loud and chaotic at time, which I absolutely love.  We had a traditional Lebanese meal (kibbee for those of you who are familiar) and broke in the new Kinect my parents bought for my sister’s family.

New Years?  Well, the way we spent our New Year’s Eve is perhaps a testament to our new lives.  We were asleep until about 11:58, when my phone blowing up with “Happy New Year!” texts woke us up ever so briefly.  Then I went back to sleep after kissing my hubs and wishing him (and a sleeping Alana) a Happy New Year and hubs got up to play video games all night.  (Yes, we are just about as opposite as can be!)  And really?  It didn’t feel weird or sad or like anything was missing to not stay up partying until midnight to ring in the new year.  It felt just right to do it the way we did.

Another thing that feels just right is that I’ve not had the usually irresistible compulsion need  to scurry around figuring out what my resolutions are this year.  I’ve never been huge on resolutions.  Let me rephrase that; I don’t really feel strongly about them one way or the other.  I think they are a great tool for some people, a stumbling block for others, or something to which you might be completely ambivalent, like me.

I do, however, think it’s useful many times each year to revisit your goals and vision for your life, and that’s something I’ve been thinking about over the last several weeks.  For me, as fun as the holidays are, they also make me a little introspective as I think about my “year in review”…which naturally leads me to think of the coming year.  Broken down into months, weeks, days, hours, and choices.

So look for a post about that soon.  Where I’m headed this week/month/year.  I am not 100% sure what it will look like yet, but I do know some of what I’m committing to THIS week/month.

How about you?  Are you a resolution person?  Or perhaps you took the holidays/New Year as an opportunity to brush off your goals and update a bit?  Please to share!

Gratuitous baby pic:

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First Run Since January

By on March 21, 2011 in family, pregnancy, running, Vibrams

Saturday I went on my first run since January.  You might remember that I quit running about a month into my pregnancy because I was experiencing some pretty bad nausea which made any kind of movement (especially the vigorous kind) result in abject misery.  (Okay, maybe I’m a little bit of a drama queen, but it really was pretty bad.)  My nausea has abated over the last few weeks until it’s almost completely gone – hooray!

This past weekend our family was all up on the island to hang out together and celebrate my nephew’s first birthday.  Saturday the weather was beautiful – about 50 degrees and sunny almost all day long.  So we all geared up for a walk to the beach, and I suited up to jog some of it if my body felt up to it.  My sister was also testing out a jogger she has had stored up on the island at my folks’ place, and I wanted to test it out, too, in preparation for ending up with one of my own for our baby!

We headed out for our walk – my sister, her husband, and 3 of their 4 kids; my cousin, his wife, and their 2 little girls, and me.  I immediately took over pushing the monster boy (that’s a reference to size, not temperament!) one year old in the jogger, and my nephew was riding on his dad’s shoulders.  My 5 year old niece was walking/jogging with me and she and her brother (the shoulder-riding nephew) decided they wanted to race to the beach.  So we alternated between walking, jogging, and sprinting (okay, maybe it wasn’t really sprinting, but it felt like it to me, and when you’re 5’6″ trying to keep up with a 6’6″ guy, I think sprinting is an accurate description!) to the beach, which is about 3/4 of a mile from my parents’ place.

I was worried after 2 months off that I’d want to die after 2 minutes of running.  Or that it would hurt.  Or that I wouldn’t love it as much as I used to.  And I’m not really sure why I was so worried, but I had kind of put off going out for a run for those reasons.  Silly me!  It was fantastic.  I definitely don’t have the stamina or endurance that I had at the end of last year.  But I also didn’t collapse on the ground in a heap after .1 mile, either.  I left the family behind and jogged most of the way home, too.

So, nothing fancy.  Nothing too impressive.  1.5 miles, I probably ran about 1 mile of it and walked the rest.  I have no idea how long it took me or what my pace was, but I don’t really care.  It felt awesome to “lace up” my Vibrams and just get out there and run.  Not only that, but it wasn’t as hard as I feared it would be.  And I wasn’t even sore the next day.

I guess this means I’ll be back to running now and then to supplement my P90X workouts.  Which totally stalled last week, so I’m starting over tonight with Day 1.  Oh, and my running will still be limited to the outdoors when it is not freezing cold or pouring rain.  Which, since I live in Seattle, could mean that it’s weeks before you hear about another run.  (Actually, our forecast is for mid-50s and sunny on Wednesday, so that’ll be my next run!)

But it feels good to be back.  And you know what else?  I think the baby loved it.  :)

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3 Christmas Gifts

By on December 26, 2010 in body, eating, family, food, gratitude, holiday, hunger, mindfulness, R2P4, working out

Good morning, friends!  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and were able to spend time with your nearest and dearest yesterday.  I had a fantastic day with my family.  It occurred to me as we were sitting around the dinner table last night – just the 11 of us – that our “small” family Christmas might be more than many people can take!  It was loud and crazy and there were kids yelling, a baby crying (not often, though), too many butts in the kitchen, a maze of toys and small pieces to step over in just about every room…and it was perfect!  When you picture my family, start with the family from My Big Fat Greek Wedding…switch the ethnicity from Greek to Lebanese…tone down the crazy by about 50%…and you’ll have a decent idea of what my family is like.

3 Christmas Gifts

Even in the midst of that chaos, I continued to think about some of what I’ve been chewing on lately (pun intended).  And I re-realized (yes, I’m that girl who has to learn the same lesson over and over again…sue me) a few things that made me feel pretty darn silly.  In a good way.  These three realizations are a gift to me, for the reasons outlined below.  I’m sharing them with you in the hopes that maybe something in here will be a gift to you.

Realization #1: I am okay.  I am okay now.  I will be okay in the future.  This doesn’t mean that I will not struggle, stumble, fall, or trip multiple times in life (heck, multiple times per day!).  But one thing being with my family makes me realize?  I’m so blessed.  I’m loved.  I’m not alone.  No matter what I go through in life, I have a whole bunch of people in my corner who would do anything to help me succeed.  What more can I ask?

Realization #2: My body craves exercise.  My plan was to get in a hard cardio workout on Christmas Eve, but one thing (staying up late the night before) led to another (sleeping in) led to another (packing my gym clothes but going to my sister’s house with the intention of stopping at the gym on my way home instead of on the way there), and my workout didn’t happen.  I let it not happen.  And you know what my body told me?  Cut that shit crap out.  My body craves movement now in a way I never realized before, and when I go more than one day without it?  I hear about it.  Harder to sleep.  Back starts to ache.  So, note to self…unless extraordinary circumstances exist, the workout has to be my #1 priority.

Realization #3: This is probably the most important one.  My body is satisfied with far less food than my mind. Maybe this is a no-brainer for y’all, but I think I’m learning this lesson in multiple ways over time.  I realized this last night as I was still feeling full from dinner when I got home at 11:30 p.m.  Granted, we ate late, but this was a mini-revelation for me!  I had eaten over 3 hours before and I was not yet hungry!  And what’s more, I had only eaten one plate of food!  Which was at least half vegetables! 

This body of mine, it is wise.  And it has known ever since I lost this most recent chunk of weight that I don’t need as much food to nourish my body.  My mind?  Not so much.  Lagging behind the body a bit.   Rebelling against what it views as “restriction” and “deprivation” in terms of reduced food intake.  But even though it was kind of a “duh!” moment, it is also so encouraging me to re-learn this lesson.  Because all I have to do is learn to pay more attention to my body than to my brain.  Learning to be mindful of what I am eating and why will be hard, but ever so worth it, because my body knows what it needs…all I have to do is listen.

So along with the new watch and the gift of cash from my parents and the wonderful hand-made ornaments and drawings I received from my family, I am also treating these reminders as gifts, too.  I am encouraged, my friends.  I know what to do.  I know I am capable.  I know the struggle is not over.  But I know now more than ever that I can succeed.  You can, too!

How was your Christmas?  Did the holiday help you remember or realize new things about yourself?

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The Morning After…

By on November 29, 2010 in eating, family, holiday, planning

Happy Monday, friends!  I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving – I know I did!  I was sick for part of the weekend, but I still really enjoyed the quality time with my family and friends.  My plan called for me to avoid sugar and starches and enjoy the rest of the food this weekend in moderation, and I’m happy to report that I did it!  Due to crappy weather, being sick, and not having access to a gym, my only workout was an awesome run on Friday, so I am really looking forward to getting back in the gym this week.

So, it’s the “morning after” now.  How’d you do?  Did you go into the holiday with a plan for how to approach it?  Did you decide to indulge reasonably and in moderation?  Or did you decide to treat Thanksgiving just like any other day?  Maybe you made a conscious choice to throw caution to the wind and just go wild for the weekend.

Whatever your plan was, did you stick to it?  Dwelling in the past isn’t always useful, but if you can use past experiences to learn a lesson and be better equipped for the next holiday (which, ahem, is in 26 days), then it’s not “dwelling” at all.   My advice to you is this: have a plan.  Then when the day has passed, evaluate your plan.  Did it work?  Did you stick to it?  How do you feel?  Can you tweak your plan to make it better next time?  Are you feeling empowered or deprived?  Etc.  Take your pulse now that Thanksgiving is over.

Even more importantly, though – today is a new day.  Even if you had a plan and then failed spectacularly at its execution, it’s over.  Every moment, every meal, every workout from this moment forward provides you with a new opportunity to start making healthy choices again.  Healthy people aren’t healthy 100% of the time, you know.  They’re not perfect.  But they don’t use one bad day (or weekend) as the reason to throw in the towel, throw up their hands, and give up completely.  Get back on track – today.  Decide that your next meal or snack will be a healthy one.  Look at your calendar and plan your next workout.  Heck, your next week’s worth of workouts!

This post feels all over the place.  What I really want to say is this:

I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving.
I hope you had a plan and stuck to it.

And for those that didn’t, I hope you love yourself enough to say, “Thanksgiving is over.  I wasn’t perfect, but that’s okay – it doesn’t make me a bad person.  And I am worth the effort and planning it will take to get back on track today.”

What is your advice to people who may be just starting their journey and who feel overwhelmed by the holidays?  How did you do?  What lessons did you learn for next time?

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Checking In

By on November 20, 2010 in family, food, holiday, plan, R2P3, working out

Hey y’all, happy Saturday!  I don’t usually post on the weekends but I am usually too busy!  Today I am taking the morning for some me time – I slept in (ahhh) after a late night out, made a great pot of coffee, and am settled in with my laptop catching up on blogs, e-mail, and Facebook.  I didn’t post yesterday so I thought I’d catch you up on what’s going on with me.  Then, as per usual, it will be your turn to catch me up on what’s going on with you!

Yesterday my cousin and his girlfriend flew in from Detroit for their annual tradition of spending Thanksgiving with my family.  But I should rewind to Wednesday night, when my sister called me up to say that she couldn’t pick them up from the airport.  No big – my job is fantastically flexible and my boss neverendingly (technical term) understanding, so it was easy for me to stand in for her and pick them up.  As she went on to tell my why, though, my heart leapt up into my chest.

Apparently that evening, my 8 month old nephew had what his doctor almost casually referred to as an LTI – Life Threatening Incident.  When my sister said those words, I swear my heart stopped for a moment.  (Sidebar: things like that? Terrify me in terms of having kids.)  She had him in a warm bath when his lips started to turn blue.  She handed him to her husband, threw on her robe, and in that short time, my nephew got paler and paler and became unresponsive, his eyes glazing over, etc.  When she described it to me, I thought it sounded like a seizure, with all my lawyerly expertise, you know?  In any case, it lasted for about 5 minutes (!!) and just when she was ready to call 9-1-1, he started to get better.  He eventually took a full bottle, played with his older siblings, and returned fully to normal.

Sis talked to an on-call pediatrician that night who said that babies have incidents like this rather frequently (who knew?!), and that she should keep an eye on him through the night and bring him in Friday morning for a checkup just in case.  This all freaked my sister out beyond belief, as you can imagine – she set her alarm to go off every 45 minutes through the night to check on him.  Took him to the doctor, where he was given a clean bill of health aside from a very mild ear infection.  The doctor says they may never know what caused it (it wasn’t a febrile seizure as he did not have a fever), but that it may have had to do with temperature regulation since he was in the bath.

Anyhow, so color me all shades of thankful and grateful that the youngest apple-of-my-eye is healthy.  So I skipped out of work for a few hours yesterday to go pick up my cousin and his girlfriend (F & J for the rest of this post).  We picked up some food and headed back to my sister’s house, hung out for a while, had lunch, and then I headed back to work.  All the while I’m wearing workout clothes because Thursday I missed my workout (for two days in a row of no workout), so I really wanted to fit one in.  I figured if I walked around in gym clothes all day long, eventually my conscience would force me to the gym!  (See details about wonderfully flexible and also casual employer above!)

I worked until 6 and hit up the gym for 30 minutes of running intervals on the treadmill and 5 minutes of core work.  I’ve been fitting in more and more of these “short” workouts lately and they have been my saving grace!  When life is busy, often our workout is the first thing to go – we think, “I don’t have time to drive to the gym, work out for an hour, shower, and then drive back – that’s 2 hours out of my day!”  Thanks to a gym that’s 5 blocks from my office and the realization that short workouts are still good workouts, I fit in a sweat session and was on my way to my sister’s house (sweaty and unshowered, but still!) in under 45 minutes.

Showered up over there and headed out to my brother’s pub for the evening, where fun was had by all!  And then on the way home?  Hubs said, “Want to go out to eat??”  It was 1am.  But I didn’t have the heart to say no, since he so rarely expresses a strong wish to do something!  So we found an all-night grill for a wee-hours-of-the-morn meal.  I stuck to my healthy-eats-only plan and ordered a veggie omelet with fresh fruit; I ate all the fruit and about 5 bites of the omelet, but I’m just not a middle-of-the-night eater!  So I brought the rest home.  In bed by 2am (ish?), fast-forward to the aforementioned sleeping in, and here I am.

Did I mention I’m wearing my workout clothes again?  J loves to work out so we are going to make time to slip away for a workout sometime today before the poker extravaganza begins tonight.  And if that means I’m all sweat-tastic and gross for the game?  Who cares – it’s all family and close friends and you all?  Don’t judge.  :)

So that’s me – family in town, a slow build-up to the holiday which for me will begin Wednesday morning since I’m taking that day off.  Heading home to my parents’ place where we are hosting a “small” Thanksgiving meal for 45 or so of our closest friends-who-have-become-family.  My plans are to keep getting my workouts in; enjoy the time with the people I love; and enjoy a little bit of the foods I don’t have easy access to the rest of the year.  I am feeling really confident in my ability to make healthy choices.

So…your turn!  What’s up with you?  What’s been going on in your world?  Any fun plans for Thanksgiving?  Or are you grinching it up this year and doing something non-holiday-ish?  Do tell.

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