Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Taking Stock (on an itty-bitty soapbox)


Don't know how I can manage it, given the money we need to stay afloat, but I think my next job maybe doesn't need to involve a cubicle. Just a thought...

Outside: beats me...no windows here. I'm determined to survive the dog days of August by acknowledging the outdoors as little as possible. Also explains my recent image shifts...not that I'm ready for it to be autumn yet, but it's my fave season, so I'm indulging some early enjoyment.

Inside: resembles a Lucy sketch...every hour or so, the lights go off in my little office and I have to wheel to the middle of the room and wave my arms around....gotta love technology.

Wearing: capris, sneaks, large shirt...having pants fit loosely again...there's nothing like it!

Creating: energy bars...which the Hubs gremlin dug into with zeal last night :) Later in the week, I'll split the holycrapit'sstillgood cauliflower in half and roast one half for me, while souffle-ing the other for Hubs. Last night's dinner was so crazy simple and tasty: roasted, diced sweet potato over green leaf with ginger dressing. I'm so frickin' in the zone right now.

Reading: Bare Bones when the mood strikes, but mostly blogs and starting to sneak onto the employment search engines...

Going: SC in 2 weeks for a family visit...

Hoping...
The current strength and good mood I'm enjoying stem from several places. It's the exercise, the smart foods I'm eating, the B12, the possibility of the move. It's taking time for me in the mornings while I eat breakfast, as well as in the evenings when I'm winding down with a little tube or Kindle. There's more I could be doing...after the first month of every-other-day working out, I plan to integrate yoga into the off days, and I should be meditating in the mornings instead of turning on the tube. But I'm headed in the right direction.

Oddly, this surge of good feeling and strength is occuring during my moon cycle...very unusual for me. Normally, I'd be mainlining McD's french fries by now and giving myself permission to grab their chocolate chip cookies for the afternoon slump. But when you break down exactly what goes into those things, how much better those things would taste if you made them yourself, using less ingredients.....well, let's just say I'm drinking Michael Pollan's Kool-Aid right now, and damn, is it tasty!

Most important right now is maintaining that consistency, because as history has shown, once I let one thing slip, several other things are close behind ready to fall. I don't want that. Right now, there's no danger of it...because these food and lifestyle choices I'm making have more behind them than just the benefit of losing weight. I'm choosing kinder foods, more whole foods, and steering away from the food industry's idea of what I should be eating. There's so much great information on the Web about this; you just have to know where to look.

And I'm not afraid to try new things. I'm not much of a raw tomato eater, for example, but they had organic grape tomatoes for an OK price at Native Sun yesterday, so I grabbed a box on a whim. Trying them in my salad today, I realize I'm still not a raw tomato person that much, but that dicing those for an impromptu salsa will lend such fresh flavor to meals...and I know they won't go to waste. I was all set to toss the old romaine when I was cleaning out the fridge yesterday, because I haven't been in the mood for romaine in weeks for some reason. Instead I examined it, 86d the bad layers, and ate the rest at dinner.

Dad used to crack wise about the Army's attitude on food, the "take what you want, but eat what you take" mentality. But after so many years of letting the food in the fridge go to seed and then emptying it out and giving your garbage disposal something to do (because we're still city-apartment bound and can't compost yet)....and shelling out my hard-earned dough on food we end up wasting....I'm finally developing respect for food, I guess because I'm finally developing respect for me. When you overeat as I do, you don't even think about what's going in usually, just about stuffing your face and the good feeling it's going to give you, however temporary. Learning to appreciate food, how it's grown, how it gets to us when we're unable to grow it ourselves...it forces you to slow down big-time, and be present in the process of preparing food and then consuming it. Not quite a Buddhist-style meal yet, but I'm getting there.

Image from here.

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