Goodness Gracious

I've been trying to make some positive changes in my life this summer. Last year was kind of a lost summer with the store and all and I'm trying to make up for lost time. One thing I've been doing is focusing more on my health.

I've never been a dieter. I don't do the fad diets or restrict what I eat in order to lose weight. This may explain why I've been hovering around the 200# mark off and on for the past 10 years or so. Funny how that happens. But I've always found that the thing that works for me (when I take the time to make it work) is just little changes and more exercise.

About 10 years ago Steve and I joined a gym affiliated with our local hospital. They had a great child care facility and I could leave the girls and get a good workout. I got down to about 155# and felt fabulous. I was homeschooling Sarah at the time and Emma was a toddler so that little bit of time to myself was crucial. But things happened as they tend to do and we stopped going regularly and eventually decided that the cost of membership was too high. A few years ago another new gym opened in the area and this time we added Sarah to our plan so she could get in shape too. We tried going as a family (but Emma hated the childcare there) and coordinating our schedule was next to impossible. Again it just didn't work for us and we didn't go. We also have a really nice Precor treadmill and an Schwinn Airdyne bike in the corner of my workroom that never gets used. We thought we'd use the money we'd spend on gym memberships on home equipment and we'd be able to use it when it was convenient for us. Didn't happen!

This summer Sarah and I decided enough was enough (like the size of our jeans) and joined the new LA Fitness together. We've been going 2-3x/ week since June. She likes the aqua-fit classes and we both like the yoga classes (there was a time about 10 years ago I toyed with the idea of becoming a yoga instructor but then I got old and fat) and I use one of the personal trainers a couple times a week if I have time. Steve also added himself to our membership last month because he is traveling to Anaheim almost every week and there is a LA Fitness across the street from his office there.

I'm trying to make other changes in my lifestyle too. About a month ago I had what I think in AA they call a "moment of clarity" and decided I needed to seriously change my drinking habits. I'm still not ready to go as far and say I am an alcoholic but it was a problem on some level. I have tried to quit drinking completely or changed my beverage of choice in the past with little or no success. Often it was a result of a particularly bad hangover or embarrassing incident and I guilted myself into it. This time it was just a realization that I am 42 years old, a mother of two teenagers, and it just didn't feel good anymore. Why continue doing something that just makes you feel like shit? I don't really want to get into the details and quantity of liquor that was being consumed in this household but suffice it to say we drank more in one month than my mother has ever drank in her entire life. It was a rare day when Steve and I were both home together that we didn't have at least one or two cocktails before dinner.

Since July 15th I haven't had any vodka and have only had 3 beers. I really don't like beer so it is easy to stop after one. A lot of the health issues that had been bothering me for a while have gone away. My skin looks brighter and clearer. I've lost a little weight. I sleep SO MUCH BETTER! I love sleep, I need a lot of it to feel good and I had no idea how much just a little alcohol can disrupt it. I now fall asleep, stay asleep and wake up at 6:30- 7:00 feeling rested. I don't feel the need to sleep in until 9 or 10 once a week to catch up. That alone is worth the price of admission.


One of the hardest things about stopping an old bad habit is finding things to replace it. One thing I found that I love is Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness. [caption id="attachment_690" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Shrek Juice"][/caption]Sarah calls it "Shrek Juice" because it is just about the same color as the Disney Ogre and the consistency is similar to swamp slime. But it is yummy let me tell you. It is really hard for me to get all the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables and a glass or two of this really helps. It has all that good stuff like blue-green algae, wheat grass, spinach, broccoli and green tea and it really does taste good. (It also has yummy stuff like mangos, kiwi, dragonfruit (no idea what that is but I bet it tastes fab!) and bananas.)

So here I am at the beginning of August in the middle of a minor lifestyle tweak. I'll keep you posted how things are going. You can also bet there will be set-backs and I'll try to be honest about those too. For instance, this weekend I'm camping with my siblings and next weekend we are going to a mini-reunion with Steve's siblings and cousins, I'm sure the temptations will be strong. (And the feelings of wanting to escape will be as well. It is family after all.) But I'm planning to be strong.



**Don't know why the formatting around that picture is so wonky. Someday soon I hope to have the time and money to tweak my blog template. C'est la vie.