Day 1: Choosing to Love Myself and Own My Life
Today is Day 4, and I’m already learning ways I need to tweak what I’m doing in order to optimally take care of myself. Both of the last two nights have seen me on the computer too late, writing my post for an hour or more. This has led to me having to skip most of an ideal evening routine in order to be able to get to bed on time.
So… I needed to figure out ways to reduce the time spent on the posts at night, so that I can get away from screens and free up time for a healthy evening routine!
I’ve decided that I’ll just keep this tab open throughout the day, and write the posts in a more “real time” fashion. So it’s 5 minutes here and there throughout the day, vs. an hour at night.
Should solve both problems!
It’s 9:18am – Mira is working today, so we’re up at 5:30am, when I prepare her breakfast and lunch (to take with – highly recommend checking out a food thermos for that type of situation!) for the day. She leaves around 6:20, so I try to start my morning routine around then.
Instead, today, I had to finish my post from last night (hit my curfew and had to turn it off – needed to add links, create/add recipe, etc…). Hopefully my new approach will eliminate the chances of that happening.
Also spent some time promoting for the webinar tonight. It’s going to be awesome! w/ Steph Greunke, RD – discussing “4th/5th Trimester and recovering mental, emotional, and physical health after giving birth!” – part of our ongoing Healthy Babies Series! Catch the recording for a couple days HERE! Steph is fantastic, just like the rest of our lineup for this series! We’re incredibly lucky to have access to such knowledgeable, passionate, and positive professionals!
I’ve done a little Qigong and shoulder mobility exercises, as well as walk Marley and get in a little Sun exposure. (cloudy/foggy today) I remembered to have my phone charged (which I put on ‘airplane mode’ for the walk) – so I was able to listen to my current audio book for about 20 minutes.
It’s a good one! Les Brown’s –The Power of Purpose: How to Create the Life You Always Wanted. (I have a subscription with Audible, Amazon’s audio book service – I download them from there) Les is a funny guy, and a world-class motivational and inspirational speaker. This is my first experience with him, and I’d definitely giving this one a listen. It’s a combination of a number of different recorded speeches he has given over the years.
In today’s segment, he talked about the need to be okay with removing negative people from your life, distancing yourself from those people (and activities, jobs, etc…) who don’t benefit you, support you, or care about you – and to make yourself, your dreams, and your goals #1. This is a hard lesson for many people to accept – but an immensely important one!
Due to the time crunch last night, I also didn’t get to write up my to-do/tasks list/schedule for today. That’s the one thing I almost always make sure to get done. Without it – I’m a disorganized mess.
Time to get organized, productive, and kick today’s ass! (and take my second round of proteolytic enzymes – Wobenzym – powerful stuff for inflammation, pain, joint health, etc…)
10:30am – Just threw some pork cutlets into a marinade consisting of a couple big spoons of homemade Moroccan Harissa (from our farmer’s market) and the juic
e of 1/2 of a big lemon. (Dinner tonight!)
Also took a little 5 minute break and did some bouncing on my cloud! (That’s what I call my Bellicon rebounder – like bouncing on a cloud!)
11:30 – Food! Leftover bone-in ribeye w/ sauteed onions, homemade horseradish and jalapeno kraut, and two kiwis. I’ve got 10 minutes until I need to either leave for yoga, or miss yoga to do the work I need to do today that I’m likely to not get done if I choose to take care of myself instead…. Definitely didn’t allow enough time for proper slow, relaxed eating.
Note to self: be more mindful of the time.
1:28pm – Went to yoga. It was a gentle class, but was still challenging for me. My shoulder gave me a bit of trouble/pain, my back cramped up a few times, and so did my foot. The first half of class was rather frustrating, and I was quite distracted (thinking of everything I “should” have been doing) instead of being present.
Around the halfway point, I experienced a nice mindset shift and decided to let everything go that I was worrying about, and not judge myself or get frustrated with my body. The shoulder pain was discouraging (was feeing much better yesterday), but I don’t expect it to heal overnight. I’m going to try and get in to see Lucas (Chinese Medicine/Acupunture) again this weekend.
It’s also not the best to eat a pretty big meal and then walk quickly for 10 minutes and practice yoga immediately after! I’m going to focus on the positive (taking care of myself) vs. the negative (poor time management, shoulder pain, not 100% present during class).
I used to practice yoga quite often, and haven’t been consistent or regular with it for almost a year at this point. Patience and consistency will pay off.
Time to walk Marley, get a little sun, and fit in as much work as possible before our 4pm webinar with Steph!
2:30 – Snack. A few slices of Meatmen dry sausage (Tasty Treason)
3:50 – Webinar time! Managed to get very organized for the next few days… get some emails sent, finished a business plan I needed to send to our team, and fit in some more time on my cloud (rebounder) and another little bit of qigong/shoulder mobility.
Also just topically applied some CBD (cannabinoids) infused ghee on my shoulder for anti-inflammatory properties! (Jambo Superfoods – soon to be in the Primal90 Buyer’s Club!)
I love hosting webinars! Our guests are top-notch, it’s always fun, and we have the best audience. (I love my job.)
5:30 – That. Was. Awesome. I learned so much – Steph is incredibly knowledgeable! Check out the recording HERE (for a couple days only)! Great info for mom’s looking to recover after pregnancy/birth, factors that play a role in postpartum crashes, nutrition, co-sleeping, natural birthing information, and MUCH more!!
I spent the rest of the evening working on organization, structure, and planning – because I could see that I needed to really get organized if I was going to be able to pull off everything I’m trying to do. So I created this template, which I’m going to use every day. (See photo) I’m also going to be working on the blog posts throughout the day vs. writing them at night. I’m cutting off computer time around 7pm, and will finish them in the morning (like I am now!)
I’ve got an awesome day planner waiting to be used, that breaks the day down to 15-minute increments, from 7am-8pm – which is PERFECT for me. But… it’s a 2016 planner, and I need something NOW!
So I created a template of my own, which I’ll use each evening to create my schedule for the next day. I included blocks of work (no FB/email), times for FB/email, and everything else I wanted to get in on the day. So far, so good (my morning was awesome today! (Day 5) )
[caption id="attachment_4345" align="aligncenter" width="353"]
Click to see more clearly. I’m ORGANIZED.[/caption]
Dinner last night consisted of some broiled Moroccan Harissa pork cutlets, some red chard sauteed in an Ethiopian-spiced ghee, which we acquire at another local farmer’s market, and some Sweet Spiced Fried Plantains (RECIPE). We get homemade Harissa from an amazing Moroccan couple at our farmer’s market – it’s delicious. I don’t know what they put in theirs, but it’s all organic and made with love. HERE is some general info/recipe for harissa.
Yes, I managed to stay off the computer last night – but I was still stuck doing something other than a healthy evening routine. DISHES! I had let them pile up (trying to be super productive, ignoring those until “later”) – which led to about 30 minutes of dishes after dinner. I also ha
d to jump back on Facebook (briefly) to post about our bedroom furniture in a local ‘buy nothing’ group. We’re having new bedroom furniture delivered today, and I needed to get those posts out there so people will come get our old stuff!
Mira helped me with organization by looking over my schedule for the next day. She’s super organized/Type-A and I’m… well… not. So her help and support is greatly appreciated! She’s going to help me review each night and see where I might want to try and organize/structure things a bit differently for optimal success/efficiency!
Better than previous nights, but was still doing things right up until bed – which was around 9:25pm. We were up at 5:30am today (day 5), as Mira is working, and that’s the schedule for that.
All in all, a better day – a little more organized, productive, and healthy!
Self-Care / Movement Today
- Journal
- Qigong / Rehab
- 30+ minutes walking – 15-20 in the morning w/ sun
- Oil Pulling
- Rebounding
- Yoga (Mellow Hatha class)
- Patience and Positive Outlook despite organizational struggles
- Food totally on-point, good meal timing
- In bed on time – very minimal screens at night beyond 7pm
- Got SUPER organized
