A few months off stretched into something measured in years - and I have spent quite some time figuring out "where that time went".
I've always been a huge fan of time management books, but Laura Vanderkam's books "I Know How She Does It" and "168 hours - You Have More Time Than You Think" are top of the list. David Allen's "The Truth about Getting Things Done" is also amazing. These were very influential books for me and have changed the way I work, sleep, train, eat and parent.
The key to David Allen's books for me was to write things down always. Otherwise, my brain was constantly worrying about the next thing I needed to do. It needed a placeholder (for me, it's on paper) where I knew it would get done. Laura Vanderkam's premise is too incredible to summarize here, but it involves thinking of your weeks as 168 hour time blocks and not just what could happen every single day. If you want family time, workout time, sleep, pleasures - have a good hard look at your entire week. The time is there, but it has to be more than an afterthought to turn into something that brings purpose and meaning to the weeks that make up your life.
I fell off the nutrition train HARD for a number of reasons over the past several months and years that I won't go into here. Life can be complicated and challenging and soul-crushing at times. It can also be delicious and gorgeous and joyous. But when those things converge in a daily crush and crunch of time, people can look for solace where humans have always sought solace.
Salt, fat, sugar, convenience, immediate, urgent, thoughtless eating. Even when there were thoughts about "should" and "good", they could pretty easily be overtaken by the easy way out. For me, Miss Vickies and Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc are just as perfect a marriage as I know of:)
However, when the bad stuff crowds out the good things a body needs, it can spiral. Bad eating leads to a bad mood, guilt, overindulgences, heaviness, sluggishness and a junky body. When I've felt bad and slept badly, work and family pressures can take on a disproportionate negative space. And the cycle repeats - for months.
I've found a new space to call home - one that is more efficient for me, one that literally makes me more available for my own life and those who want or need me to be there for them. And it's incredible what has happened to my nutrition.
I'm back!
I hired a vegan coach to get me back on the plants. I needed a steadier hand than mine to talk things through with, to work out the timing, and juggling and logistics with. Just having the appointment, knowing I needed to prepare for it, and above all giving myself permission to prioritize myself has worked wonders.
Fitting in my own version of a full life isn't going to just happen. I have to make it happen. And all the good intentions for eating in the entire universe aren't going to make proper food appear out of thin air. I needed to plan for it.
So I applied Laura Vanderkam's mosaic time blocking, David Allen's organizational magic and Marie Kondo's sublime premise that everything in your life should SPARK JOY.
And over the past few weeks, with Stephanie's help, I've considered where and when parts of my nutritional goals need to fit. If I want to eat an apple a day, I have to have a pretty cutting board and knife that is easy to wash at my office. And a cute bowl, and a bag of organic apples.
If I want to not be tempted by butter on my bagels in the am, I need to buy the bagels I like and have a container of MELT at the office and at home. (If you have never tried Melt by Earth Balance, it is life-changing, and who knew there was something better tasting than butter???)
My morning smoothie routine, it turns out, was really the sturdy line that at least kept me near the dock when it was stormy out.
And all the rest has been slowly taking shape again, around the hours, and stores, and locations, and timing along with the fact that the things on my meal plan are foods that I really really want to eat.
This morning, after three weeks plus a weekend of careful consideration about getting my mojo back, I decided to photograph my perfect day of eating. Which really used to be my usual days. The food is easy to eat and to shop for, is delicious, bursting with colour and variations, and is really easy on the budget. I'm going to work on a nutritional breakdown for things soon, but I'm pretty sure that everything on this list meets or exceeds my requirements for a healthy life.
I'm so excited to be blogging again!
p.s. After a late night of too much hockey, I got a great view of a Blue Moon, Venus, Mars and several other stars from my bedroom window last night. You can see how red Mars is, how green Venus is if you enlarge the pic.
