His and Her Dinnertime

It appears my health kick may have gotten the better of me. Just after my last post, my health took a nosedive (frustrating!), but I'm getting back on track. Note to self: do not -- I repeat, do NOT -- celebrate newfound health by going out to drinking sake with your awesome boyfriend and his friends until 3am. You will pay for it.

But, as I said, after completely derailing my system with too much sake (really, who can keep track with all those tiny cups) and too many tomatoes (acid overload gave me quite the upset stomach; took a wise woman to clue me into that), I'm getting back to basics, bit by bit.

My stomach has finally settled, and when I got home from work, my body was screaming for some fresh produce. I pulled out my blender and made a watermelon-banana-kiwi smoothie complete with protein/enzyme and wheatgrass powders. Tasted...earthy, but good. I could just feel my body rejoicing over all the nutrients. And I'm going to indulge in some microwave popcorn later to accompany my In Treatment marathon.

Now, my fella, for those who don't know him, is one amazing dude. I call him the Big Friendly Giant, in a nod to Roald Dahl. He plays soccer, he does yoga, he supports all my wacky health adventures and cuts up veggies to go with the hummus. The man also loves. his. junkfood. So I couldn't help but laugh when I had wheatgrass-infused smoothie for dinner, and he had...nachos with fake cheese, BBQ Pringles, a few glasses of wine, and a Snickers dark bar. Don't get me wrong, I am all for indulgences, but it was quite the reminder that he's the yang to my yin. Or yin to my yang. I always get that mixed up.

Wiped Out

It's true, I've been a lousy poster as of late. My post-a-day goal when I started has dwindled to a post-a-week during September. It's not that I haven't been thinking about holistic health, or come up with things I've wanted to share. It's just that I've been absurdly exhausted lately. In bed at 8:30 on a Friday night kind of exhausted. In fact, in the last two weeks, I think I've been asleep before 10pm a record-breaking (for me) four times. I've canceled plans, postponed visits, delayed obligations. I'm not quite sure why I've been so beat, but I do know I had to just give into it and let it win. Maybe my body's been fending off these colds that have been going around, or maybe I've just had trouble adjusting to the change of seasons. Maybe it's work stress, or maybe it's frustration over a lot of little things. In the end, I suppose it's ok that I don't know why I'm so tired, just that I honor the exhaustion and give myself a free pass every once in a while.

That said, I'm an optimist, and there's something about today that makes me think I'm starting to turn the corner. I made myself a delicious raw vegan smoothie packed with all sorts of healthy things, like my magic enzyme powder and flax seeds and mango. I have acupuncture after work, and then my favorite yoga class a little while after that. I've recommitted to a booze-free lifestyle (for the time being), and am letting myself say no to things that seem more draining than restorative.

And now, back to work while my head is still clear. My to-do list is a bit daunting at the moment...

Yoga. Finally.

Yoga has been on my list of my three health things for over a month now. Tonight, I finally went. I had decided yesterday that tonight would be my night off. I would decline all invitations that came my way -- even if, gasp! they were work related -- treat myself to yoga class, and have a quiet evening in to do as I wish. No networking, no catching up on to-do lists, no doing things I should do. Just enjoy an evening nourishing myself.

All afternoon I looked forward to this. Then, at ten of five, I got hit with a whopper at work. Being me, I started spinning and planning and panicking, all in the name of solving it and making it perfect right now. Guess how effective that was. I came home, opened a (gluten free) beer, and called my wise mama for some insight/comfort. I know, I know. With all my liver chi stagnation, a beer was probably the last thing I needed. But sometimes, you just say forget it. Beer or no beer, though I was going to go splurge on a yoga class.

I bought an unlimited month. Not the best move for my credit card (it seems I can't quite focus on all three of my health things at the same time, can I), but a great move for my body and heart. It was a 101 class, back to basics, especially as I hadn't gone since May. Some poses felt so wonderful and familiar, some poses left me surprised that I could do them, and others left me able only to focus on the burning in my muscles. All of it left me feeling more peaceful and in tune with my body than I have been in a long, long time. Going to the gym in the morning is great, and I feel satisfied when I crank out time on the erg or lift weights, but it just doesn't compare to my yoga high.

My back and shoulders are already sore, but my posture is also naturally better than it was just this afternoon. I'm breathing easier. Much (not all) of my tension and panic from 5pm has dissipated. I don't know how the situation is going to be resolved, but I know I'll make something work, and I know I have family and friends around to support me along the way.

The added bonus to a yoga practice is that it makes it really easy for me to honor my body's wants and needs. Comfort food becomes something that nourishes me rather than some processed fatty, salty food. Tonight I had half of a perfectly ripe avocado, a serving of delicious quinoa pasta with organic sauce from Trader Joe's, and two tablespoons of flax seeds sprinkled on top. A far cry from the M&Ms and Tostitos I wanted to pick up on my way home from work.

(The opening photo, of Eagle Pose, was taken from here, and was my favorite pose of the night.)

My Three (Health) Things - Update

In an earlier post I outlined my three primary goals for improving my health. Progress has been in and fits and starts, but here's the latest.

1. Begin a meditation practice.
It's begun. But it's not quite a regular practice yet. Sometimes I miss a day (or three). That said, whenever I do practice, I'm so glad I did. I'm already experiencing lots of great benefits, but I think my favorite has been the incredible way it's sparked my memory. There have been a handful of times that I've just been jolted with a flash of memory from my early childhood. When I was shucking corn the other day, I could almost hear my grandfather talking about fresh corn in Ohio; when I was taking a walk outside, I had a snapshot memory of old family friends I haven't thought about since I was about nine. My focus at work has been (a little) better, too.

2. Resume my yoga practice.
Drat. Excuses continue. Haven't done this yet, but I have been stretching more throughout the day. Baby steps?

3. Get a better grip on my finances.
Finally starting to tackle this one. Last night I returned clothes and shoes I'd bought but never worn and decided I'd rather have the money. This morning I finally set up online banking for my big scary credit card. Most of my other bills are electronic, but I hadn't gotten to this one. I'm amazed at how relieved I feel having done this. Tonight I've scheduled down time into my calendar (no joke), and I plan to confront Quickbooks.

Am I as far along as I'd like to be? No. Am I making progress? Yes. I feel I've lapsed a little bit in the past week and a half, but I'm trying to accept that as part of the natural ebb and flow of things. What never ceases to amaze me, though, is how often I'll be doing something for my health and well-being, it'll be working, I'll feel better, and then...I stop. For example, I eat mostly raw organic food --> my energy skyrockets and my brain feels clear --> I stop eating as well --> my energy plummets and I feel foggy --> I don't have the energy to think about eating as well. It makes me frustrated at my own behavior sometimes, and I really want to understand why I do this. Is it because somewhere in the back of my mind I feel I need a break from the work of being healthy? Do I somehow think I'm "cured"? Now the trick is figuring out how to stay in the good cycles rather than slipping back out to the less healthy path. If you have some magic tricks, I'd love to hear them.

My Three (Health) Things

The Institute for Integrative Nutrition has a series of Warm-Up Classes for enrolled students to work on before classes start in January. It helps harness our enthusiasm for holistic health and helps prepare us for class. Many of the assignments are geared to raising our awareness of our own health, as well as getting us to see first-hand what an impact these changes can have. Puts us in the client's shoes, so to speak, so we'll have a better understanding when we start to counsel folks. The Warm-Up Class I did last week asked us to list three things we could start doing immediately to improve our health. Here are my three.

1. Begin a meditation practice. In progress.

2. Resume my yoga practice. I've made excuses for not doing this yet (time and money...), but am committed to reintroducing yoga this week. Even if I decided to sleep in instead of going to the 7:15a.m. class today.

3. Get a better grip on my finances. It might seem strange to have this under health goals, but money causes me more stress than just about any other piece of my life that I can think of. If I can get enough of a sense of control over my finances, I suspect I will feel a new sense of lightness and have more energy and mental space to devote to more healthful, joyful things. For starters, I'm going to spend some time this week getting better acquainted with the Quickbooks software I bought back in March.

There you have it. Three manageable health goals to focus on. I found this exercise quite helpful, and would encourage you to try it. Once you start making goals, you'll probably come up with a list of more than three things you can do to improve your health, but I'd encourage you to limit it to three. Beyond that it can get overwhelming and unrealistic to tackle all at once. Prioritize, and as you feel you accomplish different things on your list, then rotate in the next one.

Feel free to share your list in the comments section!

How Acupuncture Saved my Tuesdays...and other stories

Tuesdays used to be, hands down, my least favorite day of the week. Monday's done a swift job of wiping away the weekend, and you've got a long way to go until Friday. Then, sometime this spring, everything changed: I got acupuncture. My friend Mandy had been getting acupuncture for a few months, and raved about its effects. The group I volunteer with invited Mandy's acupuncturist, Eva, to come speak at our Women and Health seminar, and my curiosity grew even greater. I had to make an appointment.

I had recently starting practicing yoga, and my favorite class was Tuesday nights, but so often I just plum didn't have the motivation to go. Every Tuesday I would have a conversation with myself (it happens more often than I'd like to admit) that went something like this:
- Go. You'll feel better.
- I know I will. But I don't wanna.
- Oh come on. Get off your duff, walk the four blocks to the studio, and work through it. You love Jeremy's class!
- I know! Let me think about it while I eat this ice cream... [insert ice cream eating] Oh...now I can't go. I can't do yoga with a belly full of ice cream.

Acupuncture though, acupuncture was different. What was required of me? An open mind. A list of ailments to present to Eva that I was sure would stump her as it had stumped all my doctors to this point (#1 thing I was not expecting to hear? Her saying Oh this all makes sense together!). A willingness to let a stranger put upwards of two dozen needles all over my body. And lying on a comfy table in relaxing quiet while the needles did their magic.

Hmm...lie on a table, or stretch and sweat. Table please! But then something strange happened. After acupuncture, I felt the most clear-headed, grounded, and energetic I had felt in months. Energy? Me? What was I to do? Oh. Right. Jeremy's yoga class. And with how great I felt post-acupuncture, I had no desire (that's no lie) to dig into ice cream.

Having Tuesday recast in this new light managed to shift my outlook for my entire week. Tuesdays were no longer this wasteland between weekends; they became a night dedicated to my health and wellness. I knew I was busy on Tuesdays, so I didn't make other plans. Often it would be my only night all week to decompress, relax, curl up with a book, check in with myself.

I still go as often as I can, once a week whenever possible, but now I know that I have other tools in my wellness arsenal, too. If I can't go to acupuncture in a given week, I try to compensate by eating particularly well and getting a little more activity, and still taking time for myself. One thing I've really enjoyed about seeing Eva regularly is how well she knows me and my body. She can pick up on subtle changes and knows how to address them. That, and she's not put off by my request to for her to take pictures of me once I've been stuck full of needles. In fact, she wanted to get it just right, so she took two.

Now that's service. What I love about this shot is that you can see my reaction to the needles. Depending on the location, I get very strong blush points/reactions. None too surprising that with all my tummy issues, the points relating to inflammation, which is what you see here, react as if to say "yeah! give me some love!"

Because I am a very curious sort of bear, I usually ask Eva a smattering of acupuncture related questions every time I go. I'm still just beginning to wrap my mind around it all, but she recommended a great book in one of my first visits. The Web That Has No Weaver, by Ted Kaptchuk, O.M.D., is widely recognized as an authority on Eastern medicine. In fact, Dr. Andrew Weil (who works with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, where I just enrolled -- yay!) says it is the book that first piqued his curiosity in Eastern medicine, and continues to be one of the best sources out there. I've only dipped in and out of it, but every time I open it, I learn something fascinating.


Right now I'm my typical post-acupuncture excited mind-whirl, and want to write about all the cool things I learned today while reading Digestive Wellness (from the Good News! post), and my experience meditating last night, and some of my favorite tricks for keeping my kitchen stocked so it's conducive to making better choices. But if I'm going to stick to my bedtime (and I've been slacking lately...) and my 21 day meditation resolution, I'd better sign off for now.

If you've ever tried acupuncture, or are just curious, I'd love to hear about it.