Day 1: Choosing to Love Myself and Own My Life
Day 8 – the start of my second week! The fact I’m finishing this/posting it two days later (Wednesday, Day 10) shows that I’ve let myself get a little behind on the blog. Aside from that… all is going well – so I’m not gonna’ beat myself up over it. Today will be a Day 8/Day 9 Double Feature!
Monday (Day 8) started early (5:30am) – as it was a work day for Mira. As previously mentioned, I get up when she gets up, make her breakfast, pack her lunch, etc… so that she doesn’t have to get up earlier than 5:30am. Even 5:30 is too early, but any earlier and some pretty solid circadian disruption happens – which she’s very sensitive to.
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Mandala![/caption]
After she left, I nailed my morning routine again. I even added in some time to start on a new mandala. Drawing/coloring mandalas is a very meditative and relaxing practice – which I highly recommend!
While on my morning walk with Marley, I listened to the Les Brown audio book I’ve been listening to for a couple weeks. (See previous posts for details) Two nuggets that I took away from this are:
“Used to be’s don’t make no honey.”
“…meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same”
I’m not sure of the source on the first, but the second is from a Rudyard Kipling poem titled “If-” – you can see the whole poem
HERE. It’s great.
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Zen Turtle, Timer, Qigong Ruler, Tiger, Pocket Pema[/caption]
As is always the case when I’m able to get through my morning routine, the morning went very smoothly. I started using a timer for blocks of works and breaks. Unfortunately, it’s a crappy time and stops ticking all the time. (Better one is on the way) This can be a very useful tool for productivity! Will write more in the future as I start to implement it.
Around 11am, I recorded a podcast with Bruno de Gama, who’s podcast Brazilian Health Nut will be launching in early 2016. Bruno attended my presentation at the Paleo f(x) conference this year – and asked me to speak on the same topic of Environmental Toxicity & Detoxification. It was a lot of fun, Bruno is a great guy! We’ll have him on our own soon-to-be launching podcast so you can meet him as well!
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Lunch! Yum![/caption]
After the podcast, I threw together some lunch (Italian Meatball Chili, Mixed Greens Salad w/ Watermelon Radish & Cucumber, Persimmon, Kiwi) and relaxed for a little bit – then went on another walk with Marley.
Knocked out a couple more blocks of work, then walked to see Lucas (Chinese Medicine wizard) to pick up some personalized herbs for Mira. This meant I “had to” go back to
Mad Monk Tea Shop, as they share space. Poor me! (I ended up walking out with an even
more amazing tea – which I didn’t think was possible)
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Too good.[/caption]
This is where things went off the rails a little bit. I don’t do well with high amounts of a caffeine. I get jittery, anxious, unfocused, and generally don’t feel good. Their teas generally aren’t high in caffeine, and contain compounds which tend to neutralize the effects. Unfortunately, I tend to make irrational decisions sometimes and basically pounded down 3-4 cups of my new tea when I got home. It was 3-4pm. The half-life of caffeine is around 6 hours. That means it takes 6 hours for the amount of caffeine circulating (and acting) in your system to be reduced by half.
I got all wired and jittery and didn’t have a very productive afternoon.
Again, not going to beat myself up. Apparently there is such a thing as too much of a good thing!
One thing I do like to do when wired like that is plan, clean, and organize – so I did that!
Mira got home, we had some dinner – beef fried rice w/ garlic lemon ginger mussels.
She was flying out the next morning (Tuesday) to see her family in the SF Bay Area, so we went to bed early. I was still a little wired and didn’t sleep very well. Lesson learned. Self control with the tea.
Self-Care / Movement Today
- Full Morning Routine (See Day 5 for breakdown – add Mandala coloring!)
- Walked at least 90 minutes – 15-20 in the morning/Sun
- Nutrition totally on-point and optimal
- In bed early, didn’t work late
Today’s Lessons
I’m noticing a pattern, that my day tends to fall apart a little in the afternoon, in one way or another. I’ve yet to put together a 100% on-point, productive, efficient day. I’ve definitely improved in that regard, quite a bit – but haven’t gotten a day “perfect” yet. But what is perfect?
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact it’s getting dark really early right now. That’s always caused me (and most people, i think) problems. I’m going to attempt to be more mindful of this pattern going forward!
Another lesson: Don’t pound a bunch of tea at 3 in the afternoon.
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Mandala![/caption]
After she left, I nailed my morning routine again. I even added in some time to start on a new mandala. Drawing/coloring mandalas is a very meditative and relaxing practice – which I highly recommend!
While on my morning walk with Marley, I listened to the Les Brown audio book I’ve been listening to for a couple weeks. (See previous posts for details) Two nuggets that I took away from this are:
Zen Turtle, Timer, Qigong Ruler, Tiger, Pocket Pema[/caption]
Lunch! Yum![/caption]
Too good.[/caption]
