My Life Game

Although we’re already a month into 2011…it took me a little while to get on the 2011 goals bandwagon and actually post them on my blog. This is, in part, because I hadn’t really thought about my goals for the year until now. It’s also because there has been some trepidation on my part about posting something so personal to me. Well, in the spirit of one of my goals – to be okay with being vulnerable – posting my goals will serve as a forum of accountability. I think Emily said it best, “it is one thing to admit something to yourself in your head, another to admit it to yourself out loud, and yet another to admit it to others out loud.”

Using Scott’s (from Reading for Your Success) free Goal Setting Action Workbook I distinguished five goal “areas” and thought about a few SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goals around each area. Here goes nothin'...

1.        Healthy Mind & Body

·         Get out of the grocery store: There are some pretty obvious reasons for this one, both environmentally and health charged. After reading Michael Pollan’s book “In Defense of Food” this point hits home even more. I’m all for supporting local farmers (and hope to be one someday) and my body will thank me for that too. I’m going to do this by:

                                                               i.      Go to the farmer’s market at least once per month.

                                                              ii.      Build a chicken coop for the backyard in the spring.

                                                            iii.      Build a raised bed to expand our garden.

·         Read more often. I do a lot of reading…on the computer. There are so many worthwhile books to read out there, fiction and nonfiction. Plus I love snuggling up with a good book. My eyes will thank me for taking more time to get them away from a glowing computer screen. My goal is to:

                                                               i.      Read at least one book every two months.

                                                              ii.      Get a library card

·         Make more food items that I would normally buy. A few of the minimalism blogs I follow have recently emphasized creating, rather than consuming. That point hits home for me, especially from a sustainability perspective. I’m going to do this by:

                                                               i.      Choosing four food items (brownie points for pantry staples!) to MAKE instead of buy this year

                                                              ii.      Learning how to can/preserve foods that we grow in our garden

2.        Family First

·         Visit home more often. This goes without saying….I simply cannot wait another two years until I see my mom, dad, stepmom, brother and sister again. My mental stability depends on it (just ask Brandon about that!) My goal is to visit once a year, hopefully I’ll be able to make it for the holidays a few times too.

·         Appreciate! I’ve gotten 25 years of birthday cards from my family, it’s time I start returning the favor. This goes for Brandon’s family as well as my own

                                                               i.      Find out the birthdays of my aunts, uncles and cousins

                                                              ii.      Make homemade birthday cards for each one. I also want to stress WRITTEN cards here, not emails, e-cards, etc.

·         Stay in touch. I can count the number of extended family I have with two hands. It’s not a huge inconvenience for me to call them on all major holidays (and Jewish holidays for my mom’s side of the family).

3.        Experience Life and Follow My Passion

·         Meet new people. Believe it or not, sometimes I am not very good at carrying on a conversation. I’ve gotten much better at this over the years, but there are still times when I clam up, can’t think of anything new to say, avoid eye contact (we will revisit this later). The other impetus behind meeting new people? I’m still a new girl in a new town!!

·         Explore photography. I have been saving up for a dSLR. I want to take a photography class and revisit what I learned back in high school. Going back to my quest for continuous learning, this is a wonderful way for me to do so.

                                                               i.      Research photography classes at Tri-C or other community college

                                                              ii.      Put away $$ every paycheck for a dSLR camera

·         Travel, and stand on my head.  It’s been a tradition for Brandon and I to do a headstand in every new city we’re in. Every new and not-so- new, actually. It gives us a new perspective on the world, especially in a brand new place. I want to:

                                                               i.      Visit two new cities this year

                                                              ii.      Go to a new place, store, restaurant, etc. in a city I’ve already been to

                                                            iii.      Run one destination race this year, outside of Ohio.

4.        Simplify

·         Create more than consume. This goes along with making my own food items…I’m going to amend that to food or OTHER items. Creating cultivates happiness in a way that consuming never could. I plan to:

                                                               i.      Create/make/invent four things this year that I would normally go to the store to buy

                                                              ii.      Keep a “want but don’t need” list and do not buy items on that list until they’ve been there for at least a month. Try to make some of these items.

·         Don’t buy clothing for one year. Many people are doing this, I have more than enough clothing to last me through the rest of my life. I’m not growing anytime soon, and even if I shrink I will probably still be able to wear most of the stuff I have.

·         Get rid of “stuff”. It’s time I start to declutter and simplify my collection of “stuff” otherwise it’s only going to get bigger and tougher to deal with. I have more than enough material “stuff” in my life and I would venture to say I use most of it about twice a year. I’m going to start with clothing and slowly filter other things out:

                                                               i.      Go through wardrobe when I’m switching from winter to summer clothes and donate anything I haven’t worn in 6+ months, especially t-shirts. Why in the world would someone need as many t-shirts as I have??

                                                              ii.      Go through wardrobe when switching from summer to winter clothes and filter out anything I haven’t worn.

                                                            iii.      Donate all clothing from points above

                                                             iv.      Get rid of appliances or other things that are stored and have not been used in 6+ months (hello, spring cleaning!). Sift through these items at least once this year

5.        Be Vulnerable

·         Speak up. This one is mostly for work, but can also double for my “meet new people” goal above. Like I said, sometimes I just clam up; I don’t want to ask questions or make comments for fear of what everyone will think of me, or that my question/comment will have nothing to do with the topic at hand. I have a baby step for this goal:

                                                               i.      At work meetings, make a minimum of two comments/questions at every meeting. Let my voice be heard.

·         Ask questions. Pretty much the same as above

·         Make eye contact. Also something I’m not very good at. All of the goals in this area are ones that are important to me because they all require me to be vulnerable. By staying quiet and not making eye contact, I am moving from fear. This is my way of approaching these fears (of vulnerability) and saying “hey, I’m okay being vulnerable, because that is how I learn!”

                                                               i.      This goal is less measurable, but I am going to intentionally hold eye contact when having a conversation. Especially with those who I am closest to.

Alright, so that’s that. I am going to check back in periodically, maybe once a month or so, to let you all know how I’m progressing on these goals. One month into 2011, I feel as if I’m well on my way.

A Yoga-lution

I spent a lot of time reading a few books about yoga this weekend. Specifically, Myths of the Asanas and the Sivananda Companion to Yoga. They really got me thinking...

I first found yoga when I was injured and couldn't run for months after my last marathon. At first it was a way for me to exercise when I couldn't run (Vinyasa Power Yoga was my go-to class) but it quickly became something much more than that. As I learned more and more about the stories and the history behind the poses I realized how important is had become to employ yogic philosophies in my own life, to keep myself centered and balanced and always striving to reach my true self. The real change in the way I viewed yoga (a workout vs. a lifestyle) came when a new yoga teacher walked into my yoga studio. Deirdre swept in and took us through the story of Shiva and the origins of the warrior poses (Virabhadrasana I, II and III, the poses for Virabhadra, an incarnation of the Hindu deity, Shiva). She opened the class with chants invoking the spirit of Shiva and ended with 3 long "Oms" that filled the room with energy that I had not previous felt in any yoga practice. In one class I learned more about yoga than in all my previous classes combined. She had my interest piqued.

For the last few months I've been longing to get back to that time in my life when I practiced yoga almost everyday, but I always find myself getting consumed in my running and my need to break a sweat. Sometimes there aren't enough hours in my day for both. Then, there is a part of me that wants my yoga practice to always be an exercise, like running is, but I know it's much more than that and I shouldn't always expect to break a sweat...because I will still reap the benefits. The Sivananda book reinforced just that. One of the biggest point that hit home for me was that it is more beneficial to have a short practice every day than one or two long practices a few times a week.

Well, that's easy enough.

So, I'm really glad Brandon made the suggestion to get up half an hour earlier to have a short practice in the mornings. Not necessarily everyday, but on most days. It's only half an hour, and we don't have to spend 20 minutes getting dressed only to go out in the cold, dark air (like we would for a morning run). I'm happy to report we've practiced for the past three days! Even though it has been a little tough to get through the morning "humbugs", our morning practice has been an incredible blessing for me. It has helped center and ground me before my 45 minute commute and 8+ hour workday (which has been increasingly tough to deal with) and it gives me a special time and space every morning that Brandon and I can share.

It doesn't take long, and it isn't hard. It's just yoga.

and it looks something like this (enjoy the pictures, each one is a link to the original source):

Start in savasana

then, spend a few minutes doing a pranayama breathing exercise (we do anuloma viloma, a.k.a. the "yogi ganster sign")

a few sun salutations (surya namaskar)

an inversion

followed by child's pose (balasana)

then a small flow through shoulderstand, plough and bridge

  

cobra, locust and bow (only bow is shown)

a seated forward fold

a twist on each side

one last standing forward fold

triangle pose (trikonasana) on both sides

then, coming full circle and soaking it all in for the final resting pose, savansana

Do you have a go-to home yoga practice? How often do you practice yoga? What is your favorite pose?

Peace, Love & Bagels,

I'm a Freegetarian.

 I have been a vegetarian for the past 11 months. Ask me why and I'll tell you "well...it started out because I just got too lazy to cook meat." In exploring my thoughts and feelings on the subject more in depth, and reading many article, blog posts and books...my reasons for not eating meat have shifted.

They shifted the day I watched an episode of Dirty Jobs that was about inseminating turkeys. Aside from inseminating in bulk, instead of letting it happen as nature intended...the whole reason a human had to inseminate the turkeys was because they breed them too big for the turkeys to reproduce naturally! That grossed me out for several reasons:
a) I don't want to be eating genetically modified anything. I have my own capricious hormones to deal with, thank you very much.
b) It's unsettling to me how food science, and the food industry in general, is toying with the delicate balance of life cycles that have existed harmoniously for billions of years.

Alright, let me get off my soap box.

So, I don't eat meat. What do I do when I go to someone's house for dinner though? I have always felt a bit rude asking them to prepare a dish without meat. I don't want to inconvenience them, I don't want to seem disrespectful. Brandon brought up a point that really resonates with me; eating is a way of ingesting karma. By not eating what is being served to me, I'm denying that karma. He says he was taught to always take a "nothankyou" serving. Always try a little bit...it's his way of saying "thanks but no thanks" without denying good karma. Interesting, right?

Brandon also challenged me with another thought (he's so good at that! I'm inspired by him everyday) "ok, so the meat industry is miserable. We're thoroughly unimpressed by it...but if I went out and hunted a turkey for us to eat, would you eat it?" Hmm. Would I? On first impulse, no. I'm a vegetarian right? But that turkey gave its life so it could nourish me. It would be disrespectful of me not to eat it.


[Side note: the other night, we pulled medicine cards. I got the contrary Antelope. Antelope said "if you are cold, kill me and wear my skin to keep warm. If you are hungry, kill me and eat my flesh so you don't starve." The book said that Antelope in the contrary is telling me that a "decision to start now is necessary."]

At the time, I couldn't answer the question of whether I'd eat Brandon's turkey.

So, I've been feeling very wishy-washy on the subject of vegetarianism. Why did I feel weird about making an exception for meat that I know the very source of where it came from? Why do I feel bad requesting meatless dishes at dinner parties?

Today, I read something that put it all in perspective for me. Something that helped me make a decision to act. By act, I mean, to define my values. Decide exactly how I feel about eating a meat-free diet. What I read was an incredibly poignant post by Mark Scarborough over at Real Food Has Curves. When you have the chance, please take a minute to read it. It's beautifully powerful and moving.

Here's where I am: I'm a freegetarian. (Brandon's word...not mine). When it is within my control (control the controllables, right?) I will not eat generic, industrialized, food-sciencetized meat that's pumped chock-full of hormones and chemicals to make it bigger, meatier and more palatable. If I choose to eat meat, I will only eat meat from animals that I know are raised and killed humanely. I want to be in touch with my food source. But I will not impose my beliefs on my friends and my family. If I am in someone else's home and am served meat that is a product of our industrialized food industry, I will eat it with wholehearted gratitude. After all, that animal had to die to feed me too, and my friends went through the trouble to prepare it. I would be denying its karma by not eating it.