Everyone Needs A Break

So, remember when I gave you permission to take a break now and then? Well, I'm taking my own advice this week. Trust me, it's in everyone's best interests.

I will miss you, but I'll be back on November 4th! That's hardly any time at all. Spend some time in the archives, if you want to - a little refresher is never a bad thing.

See you in a week!
- Sarah

Feel-Good Friday!

Happy Friday! Let's have a dance party!

(once again, I'm going to let you provide the music. It is not mine to dictate what y'all are dancing to)

And then let's go into the weekend with the intention of resting, relaxing, and recharging. Make yourself a couple of really good meals, get as much sleep as you want or need, and we'll all feel like new when we meet back up here on Monday. Or at least, new-ish.

Have a lovely weekend!
- Sarah

Quick Bite Thursday

I have decided that I have nothing to offer today that can't be summed up in this quote:

"In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?" - Gabrielle Roth

And now I'm off to do some dancing, singing, silence-enjoying, and hopefully find a story or to to be enchanted by. You should too. I'll see you tomorrow.

- Sarah

Love On A Plate

So we've all heard the phrase "food is not love." Which is generally true, but also ... not true. As with so many things, it all depends on how you look at it.

No meal is ever going to give you the kind of emotional fulfillment that reciprocated love will, although I've certainly had a few meals that came damn close. On the other hand, eating well is a very good way to take care of yourself and, by extension, show yourself love. I can't deny that a balanced, reasonably-portioned diet doesn't feel nearly as good as a hug does but I can say that over time a balanced, reasonably-portioned diet is going to make you feel pretty great about yourself, which will lead to more people wanting to hug you, so there's that.

Key phrase here: "reasonably-portioned." It's often so tempting to show ourselves love by giving ourselves as much of what we want as possible at any given time. It's an understandable impulse, but think about it for a minute - remember the last time you had a meal that was so good you didn't want to stop eating? So you didn't? How did you feel when you finally stopped? I'm guessing you felt at least a little bit gross, even though everything started wonderfully. I'm all about "everything in moderation, including moderation," believe me, but excess is almost always going to find a way to backfire on you. So learn to recognize when you're full, and give yourself permission to stop when you get there. If it's something you really like you can box up the leftovers and enjoy it all over again tomorrow, and if you really didn't like it all that much you can give it to your dog or your compost pile or your dining companion who did enjoy it. Never feel like you have to be a member of the Clean Plate Club just on sheer principle.

On the other side of it, some of us withhold pleasurable things from ourselves when we feel we don't "deserve" them, or because for whatever reason we're not that interested in taking care of ourselves. I am really not qualified to delve too far into this angle of the issue, but I will say this, and I'm speaking from personal experience: you deserve to be well-fed, you deserve to be cared for, and once you start the self-care ball rolling it gets easier and easier. And if you just can't seem to get the ball rolling even a little bit please seek out someone who can help you with it. You are worth it.

Whichever end of the spectrum you're on, here's your assignment for today: think about what you most want to eat today, and then go make it for yourself. Set a nice table, even if it's just you and your goldfish, and enjoy exactly as much of your meal as your body tells you you need. Then see how you feel for the rest of your day, and even tomorrow. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Once again, I have no idea what's on tap for tomorrow, but whatever it is it's going to be great. I'll see you then!

- Sarah

Just Stuff

Have you ever seen those photographs of people around the world with all of their possessions laid out in front of them? It is damn amazing how much more stuff Americans have than just about anyone else, and we all (or, well, most of us) know full well that we don't need most of it.

No, we really don't. Be honest, think about the last thing you decided to keep "because I might need it." How long ago did you make that decision? Have you needed it yet? If it's been six months, and I'm being generous with that, you don't need it.

Another thing to consider: have you ever found yourself needing something, and realized that you used to have just that thing but got rid of it somewhere along the way? How long did you kick yourself for that? Not very long, I'm guessing. Most likely what happened is that you went "oh man, I used to have one of those. Oh well." And then you went out and procured another one and that was that.

I think a lot of people feel defined by their "things," and certainly we all have things that are important to us and could be considered definitive, but be honest with yourself - how much of your stuff can really rightfully assume such an elevated position? If it's been sitting in a box in your garage for the last two years it's not definitive, at least not in the way you think it is.

And then there's the sentimental angle, but just as with the clothing thing, just because someone you love gave it to you that's not a good enough reason to keep something, and allowing something to gather dust on the back of a shelf where no one can even see it is probably not how you want to honor someone.

So here's your assignment today (yes, it's an assignment day!): go through your house and find ten things you really don't need and then get them the heck out of your house. Whether you throw them away or donate them or give them to someone else, it doesn't matter, just don't let them keep sharing your physical or mental space for one more minute. They don't have to be big things - I'm going to tackle my stash of rubber bands right after I get done writing this (yes, I do these assignments too!) - and you certainly don't have to stop at ten, but ten should be your baseline. But I'm betting that once you start you're going to want to keep going for a bit. It's amazing how much clearer you feel when you get rid of even a portion of the extraneous stuff.

Foodie Wednesday tomorrow! It's going to be delicious.

- Sarah

Getting Professional Help

So, what if you've identified what kind of exercise works for you, and you've experimented with mixing things up a little and you're pretty sure you're getting enough protein and whatnot and you're still feeling stalled on your fitness goals? It might be time to call in an expert.

I hear a lot of reasons why people are resistant to work with a personal trainer, so I thought today would be a good day to try to put some of the fears to rest.

• Reason #1: "I'm so out of shape, I'd never be able to do what they ask of me." This is actually the best possible reason to start working with a trainer! A responsible trainer is never going to take you someplace that isn't at least a little bit available to you. Yes, you will get pushed to your limits and yes, it will be difficult, but that's how you improve. One of the things that people who do work with trainers really like is the fact that there's someone holding them accountable and encouraging them to work just a little harder.
• Reason #2: "All trainers are perky gym people, and that irritates me." It is true that a lot of trainers are in fact dudebros and barbie dolls, but certainly not all of us. If you're really concerned about personality conflicts, consider inquiring about personal training at a nearby yoga or pilates studio - much less potential for getting paired with a stereotypical "gym-type" trainer, although there is a stronger possibility of getting paired with a New Age hippie, but that might work for you! It is also worth considering that regardless of personality type and outward appearance, 99.7% (at least) of personal trainers went into that field out of a genuine desire to help people get healthier and more fit. A good trainer only has your best interests at heart, truly, and we do not judge. I promise.
• Reason #3: "It's so expensive." This is a tough one to refute; it is indeed a bit of an investment to work with a trainer. But first of all, and most importantly, you and your health are worth it. Secondly, there is almost always a discount offered for buying a package of sessions rather than just one at a time - not a huge discount, granted, but every little bit helps. Thirdly, there are always options to consider: working with a trainer once a month rather than once (or more) a week, asking for training gift certificates for gift-giving holidays, and if you happen to be friends or acquaintance with a trainer you can offer a trade! I've trained people in exchange for baked goods and massages and it's worked out rather nicely for everyone involved.

So there you go! No excuses, now. Give it a try, even if it's just one session. You never know when fabulous things might happen.

Tomorrow we're going all minimalist! Indeed.

Have a lovely day.

- Sarah

Feel-Good Friday!

Once again, my friends, it is Feel-Good Friday! And your directive for this weekend is to try something new. You know that thing you keep saying you want to do but you never do it? This is the weekend that you do it. And it might be disappointing or it might be better than you ever thought possible, but there's only one way to find out. So go do it! And either way, enjoy the heck out of it!

I'll see you back here on Monday.

- Sarah

Do You Smell That?

Smell is a pretty underrated sense, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, it's directly connected to both taste and memory! That's pretty damn cool. Smell is also, unfortunately, the source of a lot of unavoidable unhappiness, as anyone who has ever lived in an apartment building with weird air circulation, visited New York City in the summertime, or stood near a 12-year-old boy knows all too well. But that's not why we're here today! We're here to discuss using scent to make the world a better place, albeit in sort of a microcosmic fashion. 

First off, if you wear perfume or cologne go easy on it for the love of little green apples. Perfume is an up-close thing, it should not make you easily recognizable from twenty feet away. Really think about it for a second - the idea is that someone who's been very close to you will be reminded of you when they catch a whiff of the same thing elsewhere, right? So you want people who are special to you to think of you in relation to certain scents. So you see how it sort of loses its punch when every single person you've interacted with on a given day knows what you smell like without even having to get within handshake distance?

Anyway, that's quite enough preachiness from me. That's your scent profile - for lack of a better term - as it relates to other people, let's move on to how it relates to you.

And once again we're back on the "how do you feel when you walk into your house" tip, only this time, obviously, it's scent-related. I can't be the only person who is pretty strongly affected by what my place smells like when I walk in the front door, can I? Because those days when the cat is having digestive issues or the neighbors are preparing one of their wall-to-wall garlic and onion smorgasbords (seriously, what are they cooking in there?!) ... well, those days seem to take a little extra work just to keep them on an even keel. On the other hand, the days when I walk in the door and smell fresh flowers or whatever's in the crock-pot or the essential oil diffuser I forgot to turn off before I left don't always turn out to be the best days ever but they are certainly helped along by that little olfactory gesture.

So, there's your assignment for today - make your place smell nice, if it doesn't already! Go to Target, be the weirdo smelling everything in the candle aisle (don't worry, there are at least three weirdos of the same stripe who are already there). Or go to the hardware store and track down a good air neutralizer if you'd prefer your place smell like nothing at all, there's nothing wrong with that.

A word, though - I highly recommend naturally-based scents. Read the label, look for the words "essential oils" or "all-natural," you know, hippie stuff like that. First of all, it's so much better for you and whatever creatures you voluntarily share your home with. Secondly, visitors who are sensitive to chemical scents (and many, many people fall into that category these days) will not enjoy spending time in your home in the slightest, and I'm guessing that's the opposite of how you'd like them to feel, yes? So yeah, natural candles, or heck, get an essential oil diffuser and oils to go with it (count on an essential oils post sometime in the near future, by the way - I just realized I have WAY more to say about that topic). And have fun with it! Change it up according to the weather or the time of day or whatever you happen to be listening to on the stereo. Make the scent/mood connection work for you and as with everything else, enjoy it as thoroughly as possible.

Feel-Good Friday tomorrow! See you then.

- Sarah

When's Dinner?

So just as yesterday I expanded on the whole sleep thing, today I'm building off of something I said way back here: how often do you need to eat?

And here's the thing - just as with pretty much everything I talk about here, it's a really personal thing. There are, of course, some general guidelines; if you're athletic and/or have a naturally high metabolism you'll probably do well eating five or six equally-sized but small meals a day spaced at two- to three-hour intervals, whereas if you're more sedentary you might find that you're perfectly fine with just the regular three meals at the generally-accepted times.

The important thing is recognizing what is and isn't working (there's that whole mindfulness business again!), but I will admit it can be difficult sometimes to recognize how your eating habits are serving you. Obviously, too many calories = weight gain and too few calories leads to weight loss and also crabbiness and fatigue if you're already at the low end of the weight spectrum, but what about timing? I've spoken to so many people who sleep horribly for no reason that they can see, and then it turns out that they eat dinner at like 9:30 at night. You have to give yourself time to digest! Calories are energy after all, actual energy, and that energy has to go somewhere. The calories from dinner eaten at a normal time (say, 6:00-8:00 or thereabouts) will go toward your evening activities and be sufficiently expended by the time you get to bed, but if you go to bed immediately after you eat then those calories have nowhere to go but your brain, which will (if your brain is anything like mine) keep you up for hours talking complete nonsense at you. Or those calories will demand that you get out of bed and do something, darn it, and sure you'll have gained a few extra hours of productivity that you might not have had otherwise but you'll feel like a zombie the next day.

Along the lines of what is and isn't working, there's the food sensitivity issue, which probably needs its own post but which I'm really probably not equipped to deal with here to be honest. All I will say is that there are a lot of reasons why eating something might make you feel crappy and if you legitimately feel better by cutting something out of your diet than go on with your bad self, just make sure that you're still getting all of the nutrients you need. But it takes an actual allergist to diagnose an allergy, and if you cut something out of your diet because you feel like you should for whatever reason and it either doesn't make you feel better or it actually makes you feel worse then for god's sake start eating that stuff again, whatever it was. Common sense, y'all. Also mindfulness. Listen to what your body tells you, it will almost never steer you wrong. And when it does, as is so often the case this time of year where Halloween candy is concerned (damn you, weird little candy corn pumpkins!), your common sense will rein it in.

Tomorrow we're getting smelly. But probably not in the way you're thinking. But I could be wrong! Either way, see you then.

- Sarah

Come On, Like I Wasn't Going To Call This Post "In Bed"

I touched on this super-briefly a few weeks ago, but it seemed like something that should be gotten into a little more in-depth. Because it's all well and good to resolve to get more sleep, but if something's off with your bed it's not going to be that easy.

I've known people who could sleep pretty much anywhere. It was as if they said "okay, I'm going to sleep now" and then they chose a spot, laid down, closed their eyes, and bam. Sleep. If you are one of those people my hat is off to you and I probably have nothing to offer you today, but in the strong likelihood that you're not, well, let's start with the foundation.

I am of the opinion that one's bed should be as welcoming as possible, given the fact that one spends approximately a third of one's life in there. I also know that everyone has a different definition of "welcoming." So ... there's your starting point. Do you look at your bed and think "yes, that is an excellent place to be." If not, then why not? Most bed-related stuff is easy and pretty cheap to adjust; get a topper or a featherbed if your mattress is too firm, add or subtract pillows depending on your preference and maybe consider shopping around for a pillow type that suits you better if you think you might need more or less head support than you're getting right now, if your sheets feel like sandpaper you can find an all-cotton set with a thread count of at least 300 for really pretty cheap if you know where to look (and if any of those places want to pay me to recommend them I am all for that, but until then you're an intelligent and reasonable person and I'm sure you know the places I'm talking about). And by the way, yes, all-cotton is important. Or at the very least, all-natural fibers - sheets with polyester in them make you sweaty and they pill like crazy, neither of which are terribly welcoming. Except maybe that is your definition of "welcoming," but that's between you and your god and I am way off track here.

Just start with the mattress and work your way up, considering every element on your way there: mattress, pillows, sheets, blankets (both primary and, if necessary, supplementary). Don't even worry about being practical right now, just figure out what everything would ideally be like if it were up to you. Write it down, even! And then look at the list and figure out how you're going to make it, or a close-enough version of it, happen.

Now, yes, you might share your bed with someone who has vastly different ideas of what constitutes "welcoming," but trust me, there is always a work-around. If you're close enough to someone to be regularly sharing a bed with them you should be capable of communicating your needs and finding a solution that works for everyone. And if you're not, well, I am not equipped to help you with that here but I would strongly recommend that you find someone who is. Anyway.

This is one of those things that people tend to put aside, I think, like it gets bumped way down on the priority list for whatever reason and I guess I sort of understand that but I also don't. Like I said, you spend about a third of your life in there! It's worth prioritizing a third of your life! So what if no one sees it but you? You are the most important thing in your entire life! Or at least you should be. I'm a huge believer in crafting your life to be as you-friendly as possible, and I firmly believe that that starts with your bed. So get in there, get things as cozy as you can, and then enjoy all the fabulousness that results from that.

And I totally recommend making your bed every morning, but that might be another post altogether.

Foodie Wednesday tomorrow! I know, I'm excited too.

Have a beautiful day!
- Sarah

You Gotta Mix It Up!

So, I'm about to seemingly directly contradict myself here, but remember when I talked about how you have to do something you like in order to maintain a fitness regimen? Well, you also have to mix it up a bit.

Which is not to say you should intersperse doing what you enjoy with forcing yourself through something that makes you miserable (save that for, I dunno, your desk job or whatever), just that it's helpful to not just do one thing all the time. It's like ... say you love gelato. In particular, you love lemon gelato. So you have lemon gelato every single day. But what happens? Right, you get dead sick of lemon gelato and really just gelato in general and you'd prefer just about anything else, or even nothing at all. And then one day the gelato person gives you espresso gelato instead and you're all "this is great! I love gelato again!" And the next day you might go back to lemon but it seems to taste a little better than it did before.

If you will forgive my tortured metaphor (or would it be simile, since I did use "it's like"? ANYWAY), a similar thing happens with your muscles. If you make them do basically the same thing over and over again they get bored and complacent and they stop processing information effectively, kind of like almost anyone who's ever taken a junior-high math class. But if you mix it up now and then, throw yourself a curve ball on a regular basis, your muscles go, "WHOA! What the heck is this?! This is new and exciting and we have to figure it out!" and they kick back into high-functioning mode and then you feel awesome, if perhaps a bit sore.

It doesn't even have to be all that different, really, and it doesn't have to be all the time. When I feel like my pilates practice is getting stale all I have to do is take a simple yoga class to get myself feeling like I'm working again. If you're already a yogi it might be as simple as trying an Ashtanga class rather than your regular Hatha practice. Maybe getting out for a hike now and then complements your cycling, or a little golf helps your rowing. It's a question only you can answer, and it's as simple as "what's another thing you like to do?" Answer that, and you're on your way!

Tomorrow I'm going to talk about your bed. Oh yes. See you then!

- Sarah

Feel-Good Friday!

I have no directive for you today. Sometime feeling good involves embracing laziness, and given the current weather here (rainy, chilly) laziness is almost required. I will be in yoga teacher training for the next three days, so I'll be the opposite of lazy, but you can take my portion of laziness if you'd like. Or you can be Super Productive Person! Whatever makes you happy, really, that's the whole point of Feel-Good Friday.

Actually, you know what? You should probably have a dance party somewhere in there. Just because the world needs more dance parties.

So have a lovely weekend. On Monday, fitness!

- Sarah

Nothing Wrong With A Solid B

Everything is not going to be perfectly-done all the time. This post, for example - I just spent a rather embarrassingly long time trying to figure out how to start it before I threw up my hands, said "to heck with it" (maybe I used different words there ...), and allowed it to start right here. And you know what? That's okay. We're here now, anyway.

It's something I've always struggled with - if I'm going to do something, I want to be a complete rockstar at it, and often I am! But sometimes I'm just not. Gift-wrapping, for instance - mine will always be at least a little bit off, with a wonky bow. Also, cooking rice - even in a rice cooker I end up with as much sticky mess as usable rice. I could seriously go on and on here, but that would be a little silly. The point is, it is also silly to expect oneself to be good at absolutely everything.

I know I'm not alone in this, either. I'm not going to get into the psychology of it, I think that's a little unnecessarily deep for our purposes, and anyway I don't know if it even matters how we all got here. The most important thing, as far as I'm concerned, is that we give ourselves permission to not be completely amazing at everything all the time. Maintaining that level of expectation for yourself is exhausting, no? Relax a little. Your world will not fall apart because you're getting B-level results on something.

Because here's the thing: no one notices except you. Really. No one can tell that your eyeliner is a little asymmetrical. No one realized that you put a little too much mustard in the deviled eggs. Remember that day you didn't catch that you were wearing mismatched socks until you took them off that night and then you wondered why the hell nobody told you? That's because nobody noticed! And do you know why? Because they were all too busy worrying about what everyone else was thinking about whatever they thought they'd done a crappy job at just then. That might be one of the worst sentences I've ever written, but in the spirit of this piece I'm leaving it in! I'm learning right along with y'all!

It should also be stated that anyone who would genuinely judge you for not being perfect is frickin' toxic and not someone you want in your life. For real. But you knew that, right?

So, yeah. Get a little messy! Let yourself fail a little bit. At the very least you'll have had a learning experience, whether it's that you've learned what not to do next time or you've learned that you don't actually care all that much. Either way, you know a little more than you did before.

Feel-Good Friday tomorrow! Already! Has this week been crazy-fast for anyone else, or is it just me?

- Sarah

It's Soup-er! (god, I'm so sorry for that. Not sorry enough to come up with a different title, though)

You know what's great about this time of year? Lots of things, but specifically for today? It's cool enough that eating soup feels like something a sane person would do. Yes. And you know what's great about soup? It's just about the easiest thing in the entire world.

Seriously, here's all you need to assemble a decent soup: stock (homemade if you're feeling fancy, but I just use the stuff in the carton), vegetables (mirepoix [carrots, onion, and celery] or the Cajun holy trinity [bell peppers, onion, and celery] are a good jumping-off point), something starchy like potatoes or beans, and some kind of protein (if you're vegetarian or vegan the beans and the protein can be one and the same). Maybe some herbs. That's all! Chop everything up into bite-sized pieces, saute the veggies, add the stock and let that all get to know each other for a few minutes, then add your starchiness and your protein and just leave it alone until you're ready for it. Maybe stir it now and then. Heck, throw it together in a Crock-Pot and you can forget about it for several hours. And then you have dinner! Throw in a green salad on the side and maybe some nice crusty bread and it's a darn well-balanced dinner at that.

If you want chili, it's the same basic process: saute your veggies and your spices (and your meat, if you include that), add water and beans (if you're a chili-with-beans person, I understand some people consider beans in chili to be a sacrilege) and bring that to a boil, add all the tomato-y stuff and then just let it go to town. Stir and taste occasionally. Make some cornbread while you're waiting. Easy-peasy.

But it doesn't stop there! If you're a small household and/or if you make enough soup or chili you've got another several days' worth of meals, either for near-future consumption or to freeze for later. I can only speak from the perspective of my one-person household, but it's weirdly comforting on cold days when I just don't feel like cooking to know that there's a serving of a lovely white bean and sage soup I could thaw out.

So yeah. Soup! Comforting, good for what ails you, and did I mention cheap? Well it is! Soup might be a perfect food, come to think of it. So give it a whirl! You'll probably never eat that canned crap again.

As for tomorrow ... well, tomorrow is a mystery. But whatever it is, it's going to be exciting. Probably. We'll find out together!

See you then. 
- Sarah

Get Your House In Order

So, I kind of alluded to this way back when but (as with so many other things I write about) I decided it needed its own post. 

You know how your living space just feels so much better after a good cleaning? Kind of similar to how you feel after a good long shower on a hot day? And how you, in turn, feel so much better inside that clean living space?

Nearly every major religion follows some form of ritual purification, in which a place or person is cleansed in order to prepare it/them for a special activity. Hey kids, I think we all just figured out where the phrase "cleanliness is next to godliness" came from! But anyway, yeah, just as you wouldn't put on an evening gown immediately after going for a five-mile run it doesn't make sense to hold a special event in a messy room. Most conventional wisdom holds that cleansing the space contributes to the power of the ritual by clearing out stale or harmful energy and preparing the space for what's to come.

And here's the thing - why not try to think of every day as a special occasion? Because it really kind of is, I mean, the fact that you managed to be born at all is a pretty amazing coincidence and every day that you're still standing is cause to celebrate, even a little tiny bit, even those days when everything is just flat-out wrong and you'd be perfectly fine curling up on the couch with a blanket over your head and waiting for it to be tomorrow. But I digress.

My point - and I swear to whatever you want me to swear to, I really do have one - is that if you're going to practice mindfulness and broaden your scope (and I'm hoping that if you're reading this blog on the regular that is a part of your general plan) why not start with your living space? Clear out all the spiritual and physical gunk and let your home as well as yourself start each day with (more or less) clean and sparkling energy. It's like a hot shower for your home!

Now, I'm not advocating neat-freak-ness. That would make me a hypocrite, as anyone who has ever seen the inside of my car can attest (and yes, I am very aware that I should keep my car more clean. Here we have a sterling example of me needing to take my own advice). Just, y'know, a little straightening up at the end of the day. Push the vacuum around before the dust bunnies start to take over, even if it's right before the encroachment starts. Dust your flat surfaces if they're looking a little dull. Go to bed with a more or less tidy home and you'll wake up to inspiration and hopefulness. I know it sounds like hippie-dippy nonsense, but I'm dead serious.

Tomorrow's Foodie Wednesday, wherein I will be much less ... oh dear, I almost said "fruity." Oh look, I just did. It's very hard for me to resist a terrible pun. Anyway, I'll see you then!

- Sarah

Just Checking In

Happy Monday! I hope you had a gorgeous weekend.

Today is Assessment Day! Which kind of sounds like employee review day and I guess in a way it kind of is, but it shouldn't be nearly as intimidating. I don't think. Anyway.

We've spent a little over a month talking about little and not-so-little ways to be happier and healthier, so I think this is a good time to take a look back and check in with yourself and see how you're doing. How's your breath? Are you hydrated and well-fed? How are you feeling about your exercise routine? Basically, I'd like you to take a look at your general situation and think honestly about how you feel about it and what adjustments - if any - you'd like to make. We all need a little self-assessment from time to time! So take a swing through the previous posts if you'd like a little inspiration, and feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email if you're not seeing the kind of suggestions you know you need.

And really, add a little self-assessment to your personal schedule; every month or so, just take a look at how things are going with you and decide if you need to make any changes. And then make them! 

Here's the thing about changes, though - it's easy to decide to make big, sweeping ones that are going to make everything awesome forever and ever amen. And sometimes those kinds of changes are necessary and executable in an all-at-once kind of format and you come out the other side maybe a little shaken or fatigued but ultimately feeling exactly like you knew you would. But sometimes those changes are maybe a little too big to take on all at once, in which case it can be easy to get discouraged and scrap the whole thing, so I think most of the time it's useful to work in a framework of small steps. Which doesn't mean that you can't decide on the big sweeping change! Far from it, actually - you can identify the big change and then break it down into its baby steps and go from there. So if you need to eat more healthily, you can decide that the first step is to introduce more vegetables and maybe the first step of that is to find one opportunity every day to either add a vegetable to something you're already eating or to replace something you'd planned on eating with a vegetable alternative. I always say in my pilates classes, but I think it applies to life in general, that once you perfect a small shape (or in this case, small step) you can start to grow it into a bigger shape/step. By the way, if you're a list-maker it is tremendously satisfying to plot out the baby steps and then cross them off as you take them.

So there's your assignment for today - good luck, have fun, and don't be afraid to ask for help! And I'll see you tomorrow, and we'll talk about your house some more. It's going to be great.

- Sarah

Feel-Good Friday!

Yay, it's Feel-Good Friday again!

This edition has an assignment - starting this morning, and over the course of the weekend, seek out at least five things/moments/people that genuinely make you smile. Essentially, I want you to spend the weekend making yourself as happy as possible. And then go into Monday saying, "I had a tremendously happy weekend and I'm going to carry that into this week!" rather than, "boo, it's Monday." Sound good? I will see you then.

- Sarah

How Big Is Your Picture?

In Tuesday's post I talked about slowing down and taking a break. Very important! But there's another component to slowing down, I think, and I almost talked about it on Tuesday but decided it needed its own post. And it turned out to be kind of a short post, but I still think it's important.

How often do you really look at the world around you? How readily do you notice little changes that have occurred, like the leaves changing color or the neighbors re-planting their window boxes or the city finally fixing that street sign that someone drove into three weeks ago? It's easy to get so wrapped up in our daily minutiae that we forget to participate in the bigger picture, but the bigger picture is so important! And it's beautiful and it's strange and you are really missing out if you're not an active participant. Which is why I think it's such an important part of slowing down and taking a break, because if you're not aware of the bigger picture then you're really just swapping out the kind of lack of awareness that happens when you're in Go Mode for the lack of awareness that occurs when your mind goes idle. And any kind of lack of awareness is to be avoided, as far as I'm concerned.

That sounds way more preachy than I'd like, but it's true. I could sit here and list all the miraculous little things I've experienced this week but that's just my bigger picture, yours might be completely different. Or it might be the same, with a lot of feathers and lucky coins in your footpath and changes in the trees and an amazing parade of humanity at the riverfront, but only you know for sure.

So that's your assignment for today (and every day, really) - engage in the bigger picture, if you're not already. Try to look at your everyday surroundings as if you've never seen them before. Find something beautiful in the mundane. I guarantee you will never regret it.

Tomorrow is Feel-Good Friday! Again! Already! (thank goodness, honestly, I'm pretty happy to see the back end of this week)

Have a beautiful day.
- Sarah

Treat Yo' Self!*

So I've talked about portions and protein and sensible snacks and all that but you know what? Sometimes you just have to eat some damn cake, or french fries, or whatever thing you think you're not "supposed" to have just because some jerk like me said it wasn't a great idea.

It's obviously not something you really want to make a regular habit of, but as long as you're not all, "every Tuesday is Pie For Breakfast Day!" what's the harm in being a little decadent now and then? Ultimately, we want food to not be our enemy - it's much too important to not have on our sides - and the best way to make it the enemy is to restrict yourself beyond all bounds of reason.

I remember a work Christmas party where a co-worker's wife, who was on some weight-loss program but I forget which one, had brought her own dinner. And that dinner was ... broccoli. Seriously. The dinner the rest of us were served was actually pretty terrible but I don't know if I'll ever forget how resentful she looked of whatever it was we were eating, like the fact that we were allowed to eat it and she wasn't was a deep personal insult. And in a way, it was. But it didn't have to be. I don't know if she'd been told by her program to just eat broccoli or if it was a decision she'd made for herself, but it seems to me that if you have the willpower to bring your own container of broccoli to a holiday party you also have the willpower to just eat a diet-sized portion of whatever everyone else is eating. But possibly I'm wrong on this, and I'm willing to accept that.

Ultimately, though, my feeling is that food is for enjoyment as much as it is for nourishment. Sure, it's important to find a balance between enjoyment and nourishment, and sometimes that balance is found in foods that are both healthy and tasty but sometimes the balance is found in the fact that you've eaten very healthily for the last couple of weeks and it's Sunday afternoon and dammit you want a milkshake. Nothing wrong with that at all! Enjoy the crap out of that milkshake and then go back to the excellent habits you've been cultivating, no harm no foul.

It all, all the time, always comes down to mindfulness and balance. Think about what you've done, what you're doing, and what you're going to do and you'll know what you can give yourself the green light on. Yes you will. You already know what to do.

Tomorrow ... well, tomorrow is a mystery. But whatever it is, it'll be very exciting. See you then!

- Sarah

*thanks and love to Parks & Recreation. If you're not watching it, you should be.

I'm Back! And Now It's Break Time.

Happy October! Sorry for the unintentional hiatus yesterday - my laptop went flooey, and the thing that I learned was that you (or at least I) can't write a blog post on your phone! At least not with Blogger! But the important thing is we're here now, right? Right.

So it feels kind of thematically appropriate to talk about just taking a dang break sometimes. Yes, it can be really hard to give yourself permission to do so. Yes, you might have a bunch of people who also don't want to give you permission to do so. Yes, modern life expects us to be multitasking pretty much every waking minute of our lives, but you know what? You don't actually have to. No, you don't. Not every single minute. 

By all means, do what you need to do to keep the lights on and food on your table. Take care of your kids and your pets and your other assorted loved ones, I would never tell you otherwise. But you don't have to be perfect about it and you don't have to do it to the detriment of your health and well-being, and I can just about guarantee that if you're giving all of your time and energy to other people and none to yourself your health and well-being are going to suffer.

So carve out some time for yourself, for pete's sake! Put it on your calendar if you have to. Even if it's just 15 minutes once or twice a week for now, designate that time and take it (just try to increase it eventually, if it's only 15 minutes once or twice a week. Promise me). Make a dent in that stack of magazines that's piled up on your coffee table or take a walk through your favorite part of your neighborhood or get a pedicure or just sit quietly and stare at the wall, whatever you need to do just let yourself do it. If you're having trouble giving yourself permission, remember that this self-refreshing time will make you a WAY better employee/spouse/parent/ferret-owner than always giving of yourself and never giving to yourself. Do we have a deal? I think we have a deal.

Foodie Wednesday tomorrow! It's going to be tasty.

- Sarah