Thawing Out

It's been a bit of a crazy week around here. If you've been watching the news, you've noticed that Washington State has been buried for about a week; first by snow, then by ice and falling trees.

Despite losing power and probably several trees once all the cleanup is done, we weathered the various storms pretty well. Life is starting to return to normal now, though many warehouses and schools are still closed due to a lack of electricity.

Having gone through 4 hurricanes (Charlie, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne), I'm no stranger to surviving without power. The days were spent knitting, playing board games, and listening to our battery operated radio. (Though the announcer kept pissing me off with his insistence that we 'go to the website' for more information on the storm. Um...no power, my friend.) 

Eating, on the other hand, was another story. I'm still eating VERY healthy, and do you now how hard that is to do when you can't heat anything up or cook at all? My life revolves around the idea that fresh, local (if possible), homemade food is the best, so quite literally, there are no snacky fast-foods available in this house. I'm happy to say that I made it work, though it was a heck of a challenge! (check the weightloss total at the top of the page!)

So now life moves on, thawing out and cleaning up. Though I love how beautiful it looked before it froze, I'm definitely ready to be done with snow for another year.

Release & Revive

I never talked about my New Year's Resolution. I mean, I posted that cute graphic about kicking ass this year, and it's true, that's on my list of things to do.

I could make a list of all the things I want to do; lose weight, pay off debt, de-clutter my house, get a promotion... but in the end, I'm probably not going to check very many of these things off my list, and then I'll be here, next January feeling utterly horrible about the things that I'd failed at. Instead, I've decided to assign myself a theme for the year, and strive to fulfill it every day, to the best of my ability. My theme for 2012 is going to be:

Release & Revive

re·lease 

tr.v. re·leased, re·leas·ing, re·leas·es

1. To set free from confinement, restraint, or bondage: released the prisoners.

2. To free from something that binds, fastens, or holds back; let go: released the balloons; released a flood of questions.

re·vive 

v. re·vived, re·viv·ing, re·vives

v.tr.

1. To bring back to life or consciousness; resuscitate.

2. To impart new health, vigor, or spirit to.

I will release those thing I keep holding onto that are holding me back.  I will release myself from expectations; both from myself and from other people. I will release that little voice in my head that constantly tells me that I'm not good enough, pretty enough, or thin enough to be valued by anyone. I will release the resentment, and the grudges I've been carrying for far too long. I will release myself from the idea I had from childhood, the one everyone has about where they will be and what they will be doing at 30+, and I will allow myself to be content with where I am. 


I will revive my health, both mentally, physically, and spiritually. I will revive the passion for life that I once had. I will revive the things that I've let slip because they didn't fit the 'plan' for my life. I will revive my ability to love and be loved. I will revive my appreciation for the wonder of the world all around me, and I will revive my hopeful (yet cautious) optimism of the future to come. 


Every day I will struggle, but every day I will remind myself of my goals, and hopefully, I'll take one step further down the road to a more peaceful, healthier, happier, fulfilled self. 

Surviving. That's a start.

Interesting that my last post was about willpower, because the last two days have been nothing BUT a test of my willpower. Yesterday, I cooked my chicken and mushroom enchiladas for my parents, one of my favorite meals, but couldn't take a single bite. Being around the amazing smell of melting cheese and green chilis was absolute torture as I munched on my celery sticks with Tofutti cream cheese. Last night, The Roommate and I shared a kitchen as we cooked for the coming days; she made a batch of peppermint chocolate fudge, and I made a batch of Green Gazpacho.

Yummy AND Healthy = WIN!

Both situations were tempting as hell, but you know what? I SURVIVED, and that's a start. I stuck to it. I made good food choices, took all my medication on time (super challenge there), and I drank a ton of water. Oh, and on the water topic, I found something that helps me a LOT.

I know how horrible it is, but I'm bad at just drinking water. I always try to jazz it up by adding those little drink-mix packets and convince myself that I'm drinking something fruity. But, suddenly the packets are pretty much off-limits, since they contain both sugar and calories, (and the fake-sugar ones give me a headache). All the books say that when you think you're hungry, you might really be thirsty because your brain has a hard time telling the difference. And water is super important for flushing out all those bad toxins, too.

So, I don't generally plug things on this blog. It bugs me when I read a friend's entry only to realize that I've been duped into reading an advertisement, so I don't do it here. (For the record, if I ever plug a product intentionally for a benefit, I'm going to mark the entry so y'all know, today is not that day, this is just me talking.)

But occasionally I find something really cool that I enjoy, and I want to talk about it. Such is the current case. The Roomate and I decided that this year, instead of getting eachother Christmas gifts, we'd just pitch in to buy one thing that we wanted to share; something for the house. We decided, after using one at a friend's house, that we wanted to get a SodaStream.

Not mine. Pic from SodaStream.

You've seen the adverts, I'm sure. It's pretty basic; buy the unit and a canister of C02, and you can carbonate your own tap water into something fizzy. There's a whole line of soda and water flavors you can buy, too. Far fewer calories and much lower cost than the store-bought stuff, and pretty tasty to boot.

Usually though, I just carbonate a bottle of water and add a splash of lemon or lime juice. It's cold, fizzy, and delicious, and it gets me drinking MUCH more water in a day than I otherwise would. It also feels a bit sinful, like I'm having a soda, when in actuality, it's healthy. (Shhh...don't tell my soda cravings that it's fake!)

I can usually drink 2 or 3 liters a day, which believe me is FAR more than I usually do. I can tell a huge difference, when I drink enough water, too. My head feels clearer and I have more energy. Plus, there's the added bonus of not feeling hungry! It's definitely helping as I fight off the temptations of much unhealthier drinks around me.

Welcome to 2012