Friday, August 10, 2012

Battery Re-Charge


For the last week or so I’ve been on a bit of a vacation. Call it a staycation, if you wish, though I hate that term. I had a lot of appointments booked both for me and for my kids, and rather than trying to scoot to appointments and then hop on later trains and balance everything, I’d just book a few vacation days and enjoy being at home.
If you don’t do this, you should.
My rules were simple. Take a break. Enjoy my kids. My “schedule” revolved around making it to appointments, not exactly taxing. I also spent a lot of time watching Olympics, playing with my kids, and chatting with our nanny. In fact, the highlight of my days included my morning cuddles with my kids and several chats over coffee with our nanny. We happen to be big fans of pretty much all the same tv shows, so forget discussing my kids’ milestones, we always have Bachelor Pad stuff to catch up on. Being home also gave me the opportunity to give her a bit of a break.  It worked for both of us.
What I didn’t do? Stress. I meant to do a complete house makeover. Instead we organized some clothes and kids’ toys, and then had another cup of coffee and watched more Olympics. I was going to make a bunch of healthy meals to freeze. Instead we put on tank tops and shorts and hung out with the kids at the splash pad and worked on our tans, eating cheesies and laughing at some of the more interesting fashion statements.
I still ran. I still did yoga. But I also slept in. I let Chloe style my hair. I learned the names of Matt’s lego creations. I cooked dinner. I played with my kids.
Sometimes I work so hard toward vacations where we go away. We eat fancy dinners out and have every minute of the day planned. I like that. But, I surprised myself by really really enjoying just hanging out.
I need to do that more often.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Training ...

A few months ago I read the book Spirit Junkie by Gabby Bernstein. I was pretty inspired by this book. I went and met her and heard her speak. And I was totally influenced by what she spoke about. It's hard to outline it all here, but basically it was all about figuring out what you want in life, believing in yourself and believing in miracles.
Inspiring.
One of the key things I got out of this was that I needed to really figure a few things out.
Like how to be happier in my life with what I have. And, it's been pretty amazing to step back and look at the things I have in life to be grateful for: my family, friends, job, health, etc.
But when you start to get all introspective and grateful is that you statart listenng to youself, and over and over again I kept thinking "join a running group". Seriously. One day I was in yoga and I kep thinking I should really run with a group. weird - not my thing.
And then ...
I signed up for a half marathon and realized the only way I could hit my goal was by joining a clinic to learn how to run. And, by default that meant running with a group. And we got our training schedule - keep in mind I'm still working on 10k training and this schedule seems intense - and it's a lot of running ... with a group.
I have no idea why this is such a weird concept to me. I think it's because for me running is a morning thing. A super early morning thing. And I love it because no one can see my akward stride, my crazy pulled back hair, my spandex running pants (that aren't totally flattering), my red face OR hear me sing along to my music when I need a boost.
BUT. I'm kind of surprised, after a couple runs, how i'm kind of enjoying it. I like the idea of other people setting a pace, and telling me when to take a break. I like that at the end you get, and give, high fives. I was afraid I'd be the slowest in the group. I'm not (at least not at the distances we are doing at this point), but at the same time I like that the plan is that they don't leave the slowest person behind.
I think I'm learning to have a little more patience with myself.
And run run run!
I loved this picture from lululemon. So true.