Supermom Jeans are here!

The power of my new jeans brought me a grateful puppy, compliments from my hubby, and the squeals of delight of my son.  Yes people these jeans were magical and transforming.  But how you wonder.  Because they were my "short-term" goal jeans.  I bought them last week in hopes of fitting into them soon.  They are two sizes down from jeans I bought this past summer.  So I washed them and then tried them on for a fit and they fit.  Not perfectly, but not where I have to lay on my bed and exhale all my breath (girls may understand that sentence more than the guys :)  So today I put them on and it was pure magic.  I smiled, I felt pleased with my efforts.  I haven't bought this size since my honeymoon (summer of 2003!!!)  If you can do math or at least "Suzy math" that means I subtracted approximately eight and a half years.  Wow! I am a girl back in my twenties and not a bedraggled mom in her thirties - no wonder I had a smile.  But not only did the confidence that these jeans radiate cause me to smile but those around me.  I had lost some of my "control".  I've admitted to several people that recently I have started to "recall/remember" my spontaneous side.  As I've grown older and trying to keep chaos to a minimum I've adopted a lot of "routines" and schedules to help keep things in line.  Organization is good - routines can be helpful.  However as Julia Roberts as Vivian in "Pretty Woman" said " I would say I'm a kinda fly by the seat of your pants gal, you know moment to moment."  Once upon a time I was a fly by the seat of your pants and loved chaos. It was challenging to think of my feet.  And somewhere in the twists and turns of life I let go of chaos and clung to routine.  Which it was good to get organized but sad to leave such a huge part of my personality in the years of yesterday.  So today with my supermom jeans I let  today guide me, I let logic and practicality take a backseat. 

This afternoon I texted my hubby if he wanted to run to a discount warehouse store instead of him picking up the couple of necessary items on the grocery list.  That's right in a day of spontaneous actions we threw out the list!  We had no dinner planned as our eggplant curry would be without eggplant or with spoiled eggplant and we decided skip the curry!  My dog Belle came inside and she was covered in grass!!!  She has been wriggling on the weirdest things lately.  I thought it was because she wanted to share her scent or pick up the new scent.  So as I grabbed her brushing mitt and stepped outside with her and my toddling little boy.  I realized she is shedding and rubbing her fur against anything to get rid of her winter coat.  So I brushed and brushed, and petted and petted. (In my new supermom jeans no less !)  Then I noticed I don't let my son play outside enough and decided today is the day to remedy that. (even though he just had a bath not even five hours earlier) But no fear of mess on a day that welcomes flexibility and chaos if it comes.  He loves to play in the bath and sneaks off to play in the dog's water dish.  With a beautiful day outside happening and my dog's fur flying in the wind; today is the day where I have promised my son that he could play in a basin of a water, make a mess, and be a kid.  I grabbed the supplies and let him have at it.  Since I was outside I decided to take a little time and start raking our yard of all our "gifts" from our stupid rubber gum trees or whatever they're called.  It gets daunting to think of doing the whole yard so if its all or nothing.  Nothing usually wins.  But today something was better than nothing.  We don't use our yard enough.  My dog wants to be chased but I trip on those li'l gifts from the trees.  Today I started to clear a patch for Drew to wander and Belle to lounge.  As I raked up my five small piles (still in a sweater and my supermom jeans!)  and watched over my son giggle in pure delight and sit in soaking wet pants my dog Belle laid down in the center of the freshly raked piles.  She looked at me with puppy dog eyes and bowed her head in a show of gratitude.  Then my hubby came home as I was giving my son his second bath of the day and that is when the compliments poured in.  What I accomplished today, that he had a happy son and dog (and somewhat cat - but can we really tell when the cat is happy since he does whatever he wants whenever he wants all the time?).  We hit our warehouse shopping without list and managed to cover dinners for tonight and most of the week .  We got home and I hacked up a fresh pineapple - all thanks to the supermom jeans.     

No my jeans probably aren't magical (although I will do another test run to test this theory)!  But it did feel good to feel free, flexible, less rigid, and in the moment.  It was reminiscent of a part of me that I let go.  Slowly I am tugging that part of me back in today's world while still holding onto the more mature organized self that can finish projects.  Because chaos girl was great at starting things but when you are always "in the moment" you forget to shut off running water, complete unfinished chores, and leave calls unreturned.  A woman who appreciates a little mix of schedules and menus with on the feet ingenuity may just be who I want to be when I grow up. Thanks supermom jeans for bringing a smile to my face and a sparkle to the eye of those I love.  (If you look closing at the bottom right of the screen door you can also see our disapproving cat Smokey.)

May your HealthFULL Journey remind you of the good of the past, the amazing possibilities of the future but only after you have had the chance to truly embrace today.  'Til we meet again. . .

Fresh Air!

Wow!  There is something to being outside.  I like to imagine I am an outside girl.  I love the stars.  I love the thought of being adventurous.  I love pictures of nature - really wooded secluded areas or sunsets or those beautiful relaxing beach scenes.  But I am not a huge fan of the sun (its usually too bright and too hot because its the sun).  Bugs are not my friends they tend to freak me out especially ones with wings and birds always have wings so again not so much a fan.  And probably the real truth about being outside it naturally encourages to engage with your surroundings - to be active.  When you have been heavy most of your life you seek comfort and/or relief.  Bring me my chaise dahling I am ready to sit for a spell.  It is easy in a home or any place indoors to find comfort from a seat or even a counter to lean on.  But outside encourages you to walk from point a to point b,  To stand for longer than two minutes, or gulp be even more active with that fresh air and sunshine.  However, as I push myself to do more activities I find out I WANT to do more activities. 

We started out with dreary days this week - all gloomy gray, foggy and lots and lots of puddles! To have such extremely depressing weather made this area thirst for a spot of sunshine.  So when the sunshine showed up we cheered and marched outside to wave hello and shout our thanks!   This extreme change in the outside motivated my hubby and me not once but two days in a row to put on our walking shoes, grab the stroller and a leash.  Cheers erupted from our house as our son giggled and squealed in delight and our dog well she ran around like a maniac - but a happy maniac.  

Then today  my son and me headed to a nearby park to enjoy quality time with some friends. Isn't there something so special about a playground that ignites true happiness in our hearts?  A place we go to play and its only purpose was to be a structure built to encourage fun.   Fantastic!  It was so good to chase after my little one crawling under tunnels and cruising on the balance beam.  It felt so freeing to not have windows closed nor walls surrounding us.  But endless opportunities to climb, crawl, swing, chase, and giggle.  The energy we absorbed from the sun and the fresh air and then released with playing.  Good stuff!

Maybe this HealthFULL Journey will help me make the transfer from a girl who thinks she likes the outside into a true fan of being outside while active.

May your HealthFULL Journey rejuvenate your soul and your day with some sunshine and fresh air. 'Til we meet again. . .

The Pits

I pack my lunch when I go to work.  There is a pretty standard menu that I follow that takes the stress and thought process out of preparing lunch.  I tend to eat a lot of left overs or re-mix them into a different dish.  But this also helps clean out our fridge and save the budget.  If I don't bring in the left overs they tend to find their own spot in the fridge until they grow their own fur coats.  I know that's disgusting, but has happened (frequently).  Biggest culprit we throw out is produce.  When I buy it I have all these menu plans and ideas and excitement to cook.  We'll say shopping day is Saturday and the next time I think about the fruit is Monday nine days later.  Most of the good stuff is no longer good.  So I have to monitor what I buy and constantly remind myself.  Remember how you bought the berries for snacks.  Eat them!!!  I think my four pound strawberry buy from Costco is brilliant until I eat three of them.  It helps to pack fruit for snacking at the office.  It doesn't take that much time to prepare but I tell myself it does.  For instance blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are delicious.  And they just need a rinse and go.  Summer is absolutely my favorite season for fruit ( I am so a berry girl!)  So constantly we have to monitor our produce drawers.  Currently we are seeing a lot of red in our fridge, raspberries, strawberries, and cherries.  Ohhh I love a good cherry.  They are so pretty, that deep ruby shade that slowly swirls among the berries fading lighter or darker.
Today I was preparing for tomorrow's lunch golden honeydew melon mixed with some cherries.  If I am at home I love to pluck the cherries and spit out the pits.  Which is a solitary activity or for those who truly know and love you.  It doesn't sound like a pleasing work atmosphere activity.  Which means I need to pit my cherries.  I pluck my stems, pluck, pluck, pluck.  And as I grow more accustomed to working with fruit.  I give myself a thumbs up for wearing a red shirt as the cherries are staining my fingers that beautiful ruby shade. And nearby I have a handy bowl to collect my stems and my pits.  Now I have the fruit container on the stove and the cherry garbage over by the sink as I have just rinsed the cherries.  It takes me three individual cherries pitted.  Cut the cherry in half, twist, and push/thumb out pit.  I then turn around and walk the three steps to the fruit container I am bringing to work.  I drop off the cherry halves and walk the three steps back to the sink.  I repeat this cycle two more times.  Then it dawns me.  Bring the container to the sink.  If I was doing this for exercise so be it.  I wasn't, at least not intentionally.  But this visual struck me.  How often do I repeat the pattern?  It's working, its getting the job done; but it isn't enhancing my life nor had I explored different ways to tackle the problem.  I was so focused on removing the pits that the means got lost.   Too often I do this.  Focus on the problem and forget that there could be more than one solution.  Some ways are better than others, and which path depends on the goal.  It is important to remove the pit/obstacle but keep thinking of solutions.  You never know which path will lead you to be your best.

May your HealthFULL Journey never focus on the pits but the numerous solutions.  "Til we meet again. . . 

Nice long warm up

I was rested and my baby was still resting which means perfect time for a work-out.  I had picked up two DVDs to try new movement from the library.  With a little apprehension and a little giddiness I popped in Mr. Kung Fu. Oh don't worry that's not the name of the DVD.  It was a beginner's DVD for Tai Chi and the narrator/host was David Carradine.  It was fantastic.  There are two parts and I did the thirty minute work out for the mind.  The experience was like completing a thirty minute warm-up/cool-down.  No I didn't burn billions of calories.  But I moved, didn't fret, didn't get frustrated, and let go.  It was nice to not have to give myself a pep talk that I'll be able to catch my breath in less than a minute or stare at the DVD counter - only 12 minutes to go.  This work out was calming and encouraging because I didn't have to modify any of the instructions.  I just followed along.  It was a good DVD to ease back into a daily movement routine.  Also was a great reminder that I like to try new things and appreciate different ideas if I ever want to work out while watching television so I don't feel like such a bump on the log and something else to do besides munch on snacks.

Speaking of munching.  Our little one is starting to eat his veggies and fruits.  Today the plan was to start eating apples (he has tried quite a few of the veggies).  I grabbed the jar, my hubby had the camera and our son seemed confused by the taste.  He's only had veggies before today.  We kept saying how yummy the apples are.  I had tried a quick bite (they were awfully sweet which I thought accounted for the not quite apple flavor).  Our son grew into the taste and he cleaned out that jar.  I looked at the label and the ingredient list caught my eye.  Organic Pears? The food industry is just getting ridiculous using pears for a baby's introduction to apples.  Then I flipped the jar around.  Oh the food industry wasn't to blame for this jar of food.  No mommy grabbed the wrong jar.  So pears were the first fruit for our son.  But this "mommy fog" moment made me think a couple of different things.  My son is a genius to question that this food was not apples.  But also that I had convinced myself that the jar was apples and then even when I tasted the fruit and it tasted off.  I accepted the fact without investigating.  How often am I shoveling food in my mouth because I have told myself it is good or that I like it and really have stopped tasting the food.  Or even allowed myself the chance to let my food taste buds change.  There are a lot of things as a kid not a big fan and a lot of things as a kid as an adult not as yummy (or help the body feel good).  Wouldn't it be sad that my tastes hadn't changed in thirty years?  Don't we get stuck in patterns of all sorts because we used to like the item or hate them?  How many people still have the same favorite color as when they were six?  Is it still truthfully your favorite color or you just tell yourself it is?  How about your favorite food? Let's say your mom made the best spaghetti or lasagna or barbeque chicken or meatloaf (etc. you get the point!), is it still your favorite meal?  Sure they make it when you go home and you enjoy it because it brings back great memories.  But maybe you found your own meatloaf recipe and now that's your favorite but you let your parents think theirs is still number one.  I am not saying that is right or wrong.  But don't we hinder our growth and stand in our own way to keep things simple, non-offensive, time-saving, etc.? That's why we sometimes find ourselves in ruts.  We travel the same path over and over for whatever reason and forget that there are choices involved.  You don't have to drink out of the green coffee cup because you do every morning.  You don't have to stop every Thursday at the local burger joint because you started going there when you got your job.  You don't have to do laundry every Sunday because that was laundry day in your house since you were six.  Again if you love any of these routines then they are not ruts.  You are still choosing these activities because they bring stability, smiles, comfort to your life.  But if you are frustrated with these monotonous actions then choose to change it up.  Treat yourself to a new coffee cup, try a new restaurant on Thursday, or find out if Friday morning laundry lets you feel like you have extra time in your week.  The simplest change can alter your life and remind you that you are still breathing and that choices are a good thing.  They remind us we have freedom, control of our own destiny, and individual preferences that make us unique.

May your HealthFULL Journey be full of wonder as you truly decide your routines, favorites, and free of "ruts". Don't forget to take time to warm up and truly embrace your potential.  'Til we meet again. . .