This and That
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After a long “snow” day, working on the Women’s Wellness Weekend and cleaning the house for my baby’s second birthday I’m exhausted. But I’ve had some things floating around in my head that I wanted to share with all of you so instead of going to bed without writing at all I thought I’d give you a quick list of highlights or things I’ve learned over the last few weeks that have helped me on my journey to lead a healthier, happier life.
1. I don’t have to spend a lot of money to be good to the environment and myself. Yesterday, I found stylish, affordable, organic workout clothes at Marshall’s. I bought a shirt from Threads for Thought sustainable apparel and made a mental note of some other cute organic workout outfits to put on my birthday wish list.
2. It took me 10 years to learn to enjoy cooking and even longer to actually learn to cook. Finding new recipes, healthy options and tackling the challenge of feeding picky eaters isn’t easy. Sometimes I feel like Monica on that Thanksgiving episode of Friends. I’m competing with myself to see if I can out do myself. Recently, two books have been extremely helpful in helping me kick last year’s me’s ass – Mariel’s Kitchen by Mariel Hemingway and You Are What You Eat by Dr. Gillian McKeith.
3. A good workout DVD is hard to find, but critical to helping me keep a consistent schedule during the cold winter months when I can’t always make it to the gym. DVDs that are broken up into workout segments are my personal favorite. I like having the option to do a long workout, a short workout or to break it up to fit my schedule. Lately, I’ve found the Ruah Warrior DVD is my favorite. It gets my heart rate up, challenges my muscles (they literally shake) and I can see my body changing when I do it regularly. I also love The 30 Day Shred for a fast (20 min.) but very challenging workout. I know the creators of Warrior and have trained with them in person…I don’t know Jillian. Doesn’t change the fact that they’re both amazing workout DVDs that I use regularly.
4. Downtime is hard to take, but it’s something I need for me and my family. There’s ALWAYS something I can do. In fact, there are usually 2-3 somethings I could be doing. But when I spend all day going and doing including being on the phone and the computer…those are usually the most stressful days. That’s when the kids argue the most, when I’m frustrated with them the most, when my husband is frustrated with me and it all blows up. Taking down time is a necessity for me and my family. One way I’ve started doing this is by taking up meditating. I found a set of CDs that helps me. I’m also letting the phone go to voicemail more often, turning off the TV more and shutting down the computer so I can really be present with my boys and my husband.
On that note…I’m turning off the computer and joining my husband on the couch. He’s watching football, but I love him enough to suffer through the end of the game 
