Week 2 VITALITY – Day 10 (Wednesday)

Day 10 Wednesday

Meditation:  Sooooooo tired this morning. I wanted to skip my session and sleep – but I got up on time!

Food:  Fresh taco salad for lunch – sounds unhealthy but  the only “bad” ingredients were cheese and sour cream.  Both  were purchased at our local healthy grocery store so they are as natural as can be with minimum ingredients.

Yoga: This week’s laws in practice (getting out of comfort zone/growth); I signed up for one month unlimited classes at our local yoga studio and tonight was my first class.  I was pretty nervous going to a new studio, not knowing anyone and also not knowing what I was getting myself into.  I felt like a new kid in school.  Would the class be too easy or too hard?  Would people be nice to me?  Would I stand out as a newbie? Turns out, all went well.  The class was harder than I thought and I loved it.  The girl next to me was new too.  I can't wait for my next class tomorrow!

Week 2 VITALITY – Day 9 (Tuesday)

Day 9 Tuesday

Meditation:  Another great meditation session this morning – my cat was sitting on my lap meditating with me.

Food:  Fruit and egg/spinach/sausage bake for breakfast.  Salad and spinach pesto/quinoa for lunch.  Dinner was fresh tacos. Everything today was homemade and made with fresh ingredients.  Nothing I ate today was packaged nor processed today!

Yoga: My husband joined my yoga practice!  We typical go to yoga class together on Mondays, but this is the first time he joined my home yoga practice.  I've picked up some more incense tonight at the store as I have been using one stick per class.  Excited for the new smells.

Week 2 VITALITY – Day 8 (Monday)

Day 9 Monday

Law 3: Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

Law 4: Commit to Growth

These laws resonate with me as I already practice them and they are foundation of my life.  I love to get out of my comfort zone to challenge myself, and if you’re not growing in life – you’re dying.

Week 2 Theme: Vitality

I like to think of vitality as your liveliness, life force, energy & spirit. Baron defines refer to it as, “ the energy that arises when we live a life of enlightened knowledge and action.”

Meditation: 10 minutes this week – so I need to get up earlier – URGH! Ten minutes wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Food:  This week our food goal is to incorporate whole fruits, veggies, lean meat and grains into our diet.  Eliminate processed foods.  This shouldn’t be too tough as we receive an abundance of fresh food from our weekly CSA – I just have to eat it.  The day started well with a green smoothie, and ended up by sharing a burger and wings out at a local restaurant. 

Yoga: 30 minutes this week.  Pracitce was great tonight - I can do a headstand now without falling backwards!  I typically start my yoga practice as soon as I come home from work.  As my practice time increases in the next few weeks, I plan to practice at least one day a week in the morning.  I’m NOT a morning person, so this will be a challenge.

Week 1 PRESENCE - Day 7 (Sunday)

Day 7 (Sunday):

Meditation:  Meditation is pretty easy now.  I’m ready to take on 10 minutes.  I have successfully completed 6 days of meditating twice a day, and once on the first day ( I forgot my first session).


Food:  It’s such a challenge to eat well on the weekends, especially when you go out for breakfast.   Eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast – yum!  No lunch today as I was still stuffed from breakfast.  Dinner was grilled sausage sandwiches.  Small changes, right?  I need to eat better next week.


Yoga:  20 minutes yoga - done.  I started to burn incense during my practice.  I have successfully practiced yoga at least 20 minutes daily these past 7 days!


Week reflection – I have been really successful with my yoga and meditation practice, but slacking on the “balance dieting.”   My eating habits need to improve next week.  Although yoga and meditation practice aren’t a habit yet – I look forward when it’s automatic. 

Week 1 PRESENCE - Day 6

Day 5 (Saturday):
I like writing daily, as it holds me accountable.

Meditation:  It's a gorgeous sunny day, meditation in the sunroom this morning was perfect.

Food:  My husband and I  shared a bagel with crème cheese @ Brueger's and had coffee.  We typically do this every Saturday before we head to our local farmer's market.   At least we split a bagel, so I don't feel as guilty.  I made a tomato/mozzarella summer salad for lunch.  So far, we have been lacking in the protein department for food and are high in carbs. 

Yoga:  20 minutes from Kimberly's video again.  

All ingredients from our CSA, except cheese and oil.

Mindfulness

When I'm not running errands during my lunch break, I usually spend my time at the local bookstore.  Sometimes, I have a coffee, sit in the café and catch up in things.  Other times, I browse the store.  Recently I came across a cool book called, "flow mindfulness" from the makers of "flow" magazine (Danish magazine).  I immediately fell in love with the book. This fun, super creative book has articles, little booklets within the book, postcards, fun activities, etc. I call it an adult kids book. 

What I loved most about this book a beginners book to mindfulness - "living thoughtfully, enjoying the small things in life" - we all need to be reminded of these simple things.

 

 

 

"living thoughtfully, enjoying the small things in life"

Week 1 PRESENCE - Day 5

Day 5 (Friday):

Meditation:  I'm starting to get use to this.  I think next week will be a challenge when I need to meditate for 10 minutes.

Food:  Green smoothie for breakfast.  I usually have one or two a week.  It's a great way to get kale in my diet.  I managed to eat my left over stuffed peppers for lunch and didn't accept the tempting invitation to Five Guys burgers with my coworkers. My husband made a wonderful dinner of pork, quinoa and eggplant/cheese side. 

Yoga:  25 minutes of YogaX (from P90x series).  I always sweat like heck when I do one of Tony Horton's workouts.

Preview  of next week - 30 minutes yoga and 10 minutes meditation

Week 1 PRESENCE - Day 4

Day 4 (Thursday):

Meditation: Today,  I decided to feed our cat before my morning meditation.  The view from our sunroom this morning wasn't sun, it was rain. 

Food:  Avocado toast again for breakfast. Sometimes I like to smash the avocado on the toast and then put my egg on it. Dinner was pizza again.  Thursday night is $5 pizza night across the street, and it's soooo good.  I know right, just horrible.  The good news - they changed their recipe and it wasn't great, so this should help us break the habit.

Yoga:  My yoga practice was about 30 minutes from Kimberly Snyder's yoga DVD.  I practiced my yoga as my husband picked up our weekly share of food from our CSA.

Toast with coconut butter, egg, avocado and my homemade sirracha salt

Week 1 PRESENCE - Day 3

Day 3 (Wednesday)

Meditation: I completed my meditation first thing when I woke up, in the Living Room.  I had a difficult time concentrating at first, as my cat was trying to get my attention (note to self: feed cat prior to mediation). 

Food:  Breakfast - avocado and egg on toast (love this!).  Lunch: veggie stuffed peppers. Dinner was homemade pasta and fresh tomatoes (both from our CSA) with olive oil. No caffeine today!

Yoga:  20 minutes from the weekly program in the book

Simple veggie stuffed peppers - quinoa and beans mixed with salsa

  

Week 1 PRESENCE - Day 2

Day 1 (Tuesday):
Meditation: Today I remembered to meditate this morning!  I mediated as soon as I woke up, and while I was still in bed.  The 5 minutes passed in no time.  My husband says it's probably because I was still sleeping.  Mediating before bed is a nice way to end the day.

Food:  Breakfast - Avocado Breakfast Bowl (again), and salad (again) for lunch.  Dinner was supposed to be stuffed peppers but I didn't feel like making them, so it was left over pizza.  This time, no wine.  Small changes, remember?

Yoga:  I practiced my yoga at home tonight in our  sunroom for 20 minutes, per this week's lessons.  I worked on my headstand too, although not part of the lesson.  Why was this so easy 30 years ago?

Avocado Bowl- wild rice, tamari, spices (including curry) topped with tomatoes, avocado and almonds

Week 1 PRESENCE - Day 1

Week 1 - Day 1:

Law 1: Seek the Truth

Law 2: Be Willing to Come Apart

Week 1 Theme: Presence This week will focus on presence and staying in the moment.   As I was reading the assignment for the week, I kept drifting off thinking of other things – so yes, it’s quite apparent I  need to work on this.  And Facebook . . .honestly, why did I ever sign up this past January?  I managed to stay away from that time sucker for all these years!  Although there are parts I do enjoy about FB, it’s all about not staying in the moment. A  quick FB status check leads to minutes, which then leads my spouse to say, “are you on facebook again?”  I need to focus!

Meditation: 2x daily for 5 min (morning and night)

Balancing Diet: Identify eating patterns and make small changes in your diet.  I love this, “let your cravings and habits give you up.” 

Yoga Practice: 20 min per day

Day 1 (Monday):

I’m super excited to start this program! 

Meditation:  I didn’t realize until late morning I failed on my first task.  I forgot to mediate this morning!  I tried to mediate at lunch, and wasn’t too successful.  I almost forgot again to meditate before bed. The 5 minutes seemed to last forever.  Will I ever get this meditation thing right?

Food: For breakfast I had what we call an, “avocado breakfast bowl.”  It’s wild rice mixed with tamari and spices (including curry) topped with tomatoes, avocado and almonds.  Complete yum! Dinner was not healthy – pizza and a glass of wine at our favorite pizza shop.  Small changes, right?

Yoga:  Tonight is my weekly yoga class at the gym with my favorite teacher, Ron.  Am I starting the week off as an overachiever as the class is an hour long, and I only need to practice yoga for 20 minutes?  Class was great – tough one today, and we tried some new poses. I have work to do!

Love this pose

DIY Chemical Free Eyeliner

I'm always on the outlook for healthy, natural and chemical free products.  I came across an article on how to make your own eyeliner.  Pretty cool, but it had too many ingredients to keep my short attention span.  Here is my simple version:

• coconut oil
• activated charcoal 

That's it!  I took a tablet of the charcoal and mixed it with the oil, until I liked the consistency.  I refilled my mixture in my old eyeliner container (which was very natural and yikes, quite expensive).  I even have extra to spare.

Now, it's not perfect.  Since coconut oil liquefies at warmer temperatures, it smears once I put it on. So, to overcome this, I put a little on, and dab it with a Q tip.  My next batch I'll start experimenting with other ingredients.  Overall, I am pretty happy with the results, and a little goes a long way.

Two simple ingredients

Getting Organized

Book: I’ve purchased the 40 DAY TO PERSONAL REVOLTUION book from Amazon.  This book provides the concepts for the program.

Workbook: As I’m embarking on this journal alone without any workshop or structured program to guide me other than the book, I also purchased the 40 DAY TO PERSONAL REVOLTUION WORKBOOK to help supplement the program. 

Food: The book doesn’t contain specific meal plans and recipes for “balance dieting.  Just concepts.  There’s an phone APP available for a small fee which provides meal plans and recipes.  I opted out.  Although I might not always eat healthy – I definitely have that concept mastered and am not short of meal ideas or recipes.  Some of my favorite recipes come from my favorite collection of healthy eating books:

•          Clean Eats
•          The Beauty Detox Solution
•          PH Miracle
•          The Kind Diet
•          Crazy Sexy Diet
•          Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen

Journal: I think I have enough old notebooks, so no need to buy a new journal.

Yoga: The programs calls for yoga practice 6 days a week. My plan is to follow the yoga practice in the book, and supplement it with a yoga classes at the gym, and Kimberly Snyders’s new yoga DVD.  Love this new DVD and guidebook!

Minor Concerns:

1.  A few book reviews on Amazon indicate the program is difficult to follow on your own.  After reviewing the material, I somewhat agree.  The Workbook will help guide you as it contains the Weekly Theme & Readings, and also a Weekly Log.  If your motivated, have the Book the Workbook – I think this should be the bare minimum requirements.  Ideally, the perfect scenario is joining a structured program with a support group and weekly meetings.
2. The book contains references to GOD and quotes from Jesus, Buddha, Ghandi and others.   I’m spiritual and not religious.  I’m OK if references are made to learn a concept and lesson, but hope they don’t come across as “preachy” and religious.  

Program Summary

The 40 DAY TO PERSONAL REVOLUTION program is divided into four pieces:
 yoga
 meditation
 eating and 
 journaling


The book outlines 12 Laws of Transformation (or what Baptiste calls laws of nature, laws of life):


1. Seek the Truth
2. Be Willing to Come Apart
3. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
4. Commit to Growth
5. Shift Your Vision
6. Drop What You Know
7. Relax with What Is
8. Remove the Rocks
9. Don't Rush the Process
10. Be True to Yourself
11. Be Still and Know
12. Understand that the Whole is the Goal

Each week is centered on a specific Theme and two specific Laws of Transformation. The theme and laws will be the focus of each of the four pieces for that week. For example:

Week 1:
Theme = Presence
Transformation Laws 1 & 2
 Specific yoga practice for the week
 Specific meditation concepts for the week
 Specific eating concepts for the week
 Specific excavation questions/journaling for the week

40 days of yoga, meditation and mindful eating

Who is Baron Baptiste? Author of 40 DAYS TO PERSONAL REVOLUTION. It turns out Baron Baptiste is a renown yoga teacher who is a son of two of America’s yoga pioneers. He began to study yoga at age 12. He is the head of Baptiste Institute, has 2 studios and inspires teachers and students at over 40 affiliated Baptiste Yoga studios globally. 

Ok, I’m ready to transform my body and mind  My local yoga studio was starting the 40 DAYS TO PERSONAL REVOLUTION program in October. Although I loved the idea of having the support of others and going to weekly meeting, I did not want to wait until October – I might lose my motivation. 

So, I decided I will do this program on my own. Starting August 17th I will:

• Practice yoga daily – starting with 20 minutes and building up to 90. 90 minutes on a weekday is going to be difficult. 
• Meditate twice a daily - starting with 5 minutes and building up to 30. What? I can’t sit still for 5 minutes.
• Balancing dieting including a 3 day fruit cleanse -  eating whole foods, eliminating all process foods, sugar, caffeine and alcohol. Pizza and chips will be difficult to give up, coffee – Ok I think I can do that. No alcohol for 40 days . . .socially, that will be difficult.
• Journaling  - maintain a journal of experiences, feelings and practices. Hmm...I haven't kept a journal since I was a kid.

Will I be successful? Will I finish? Will I follow it as prescribed? Will I really keep a journal?

My wellness revolution starts August 17

Like many others, I continually strive to be better, although I'm not always successful. Sure, I have incorporated a lot of healthy habits into my lifestyle these past few years - BUT,  I still feel I have not lived up to my FULL potential. Yes, kale is a staple in our refrigerator, we juice, we cleanse, and we even eat our beets . . . however, we still have our fair share of pizza, greasy burgers and love our wine. Did I mention we love our wine? I might run a 5k here and there, take a yoga class, TRX, or Boot Camp class, BUT . . . then I won't exercise for a week or so. I need consistency and motivation!

One of my New Year’s resolutions each year is to lose weight, but yet each year I have slowly gained 1 to 2 pounds. I try not to beat myself up as I know I am human – I just need to try harder. So, that being said, I’m going to try harder. 

I'm very excited about starting my new adventure on August 17th:
40 DAYS TO PERSONAL REVOLUTION