My happy

I’ve been thinking for some time now about what makes me happy. What could I write about? I think I’ve finally been able to boil it down to one word… Balance.

There were so many things that went through my mind that I thought made me happy. For instance, routine, and predictability. Then I thought how amazing the little surprises in life can be… unexpectedly meeting your new best friend, that $20 you didn’t know was in your pocket, or snow days.

The next thing that I thought of was family. My family makes me happy. I thought about how nice it is to go up home, eat lots of delicious food that I grew up with, get away from Troy, relax, and see all of the people that I love. I thought about how much all of these things make me happy. And then I thought about how nice it feels to leave home at my parents and return home.

My friends. When have my friends ever let me down or not made me happy? I can’t think of a time when they have. I may get frustrated and exasperated but I love them for those same reasons. On the other hand, I only see my friends a few times a month. We all have our busy schedules and our respective activities. I think that is what keeps us sane with each other. This works the same way in my most significant relationship. We love spending time with each other and can be in each other’s space for days on end. However, we also have those moments when I’m absorbed in a book or he in his games.

Food makes me happy. Good food. Not necessarily good for you, but I still consider it good. Pasta, chocolate, sushi, CARBS! As much as I love food, there is nothing that I can consistently eat for more than two weeks at a time. Even when I don’t eat it every day, I inevitably need a change after two weeks. This goes for alcohol also. I know I don’t need to tell you the consequences of too much really great wine (or not so great but cheap)!

I could keep going with this but I think you see my point. For me, it is all about balance. Too much of anything can be overwhelming and unhealthy. Knowing where that line is, that “just enough” line, can be magical. It’s about knowing when I need to spend more time with the ones I love instead of working on my other goals. Or when I need to just wrap yourself up and remind myself to breath.

That is my happy.

Regarding the Detox

I don't remember if I mentioned this in my last post or not but, when I began thinking about doing a three-day detox, I wasn't necessarily interested in it for the weight-loss benefits but for the actual detox benefits. (Make no mistake though, I definitely keep the weight-loss benefits in mind. I look at it as a way to kick-start a better diet.)

I've never been one to "diet." The last diet-diet that I was on, if I recall correctly, was the Four-Day Wonder Diet, in the early nineties. It was mega-restrictive and certainly, I lost weight. I think I lost five pounds in four days; but then I gained almost six pounds after I celebrated the end of my diet by eating breakfast at McDonald's. My mistake, yes, but all in all, I simply haven't been one to board the various diet trains. In fact, I've been somewhat skeptical of the fasting/detox thing. But I don't doubt it's effectiveness and benefits. And I like the idea that people still eat while detoxing: just raw fruits and vegetables.

After my horrid month of eating crappy food, indulging in sweets and fatty snacks, and not exercising, I began to think about detoxing more seriously. I was scoping out some detox kits at Whole Foods, though the one thing that bothered me about those was the fact that it looked like, from the brief overview of the packaging, it's a bunch of vitamin supplements. I don't want that. If I'm going to detox, I want to do it the NATURAL way, not by swallowing a bunch of pills.

When I Googled "One day fast," I found a website that had easy-to-understand, sensible information about water fasting. It also had a link to a full-body cleanse site. So I read on. I ended up printing this guy's, Dr. Ben Kim's info. about the full-body cleanse and the one-day water fasting. I read over the information and decided that I trusted what Dr. Kim had to say. I liked that he wasn't trying to sell anything and that his plan seemed easy to execute. I checked out his credentials, read some feedback, and checked out the sample diet.

As I mentioned before: I'm NOT interested in a life-style change but rather a one-time detox or cleansing. And, may I add, something I can do maybe once a month or whenever I feel I need to. I make these claims, of course, knowing that my habits over the past month have not been indictative of my normal eating/exercising habits.

Yesterday was my first full day of detoxing. It went quite well, I think. I love food, though. Cooked food, especially. And sweets. So I was missing and craving those things early yesterday evening. However, after I had my dinner "salad" (which I ended up having dinner veggies, as I'm not a huge salad fan -- particularly without cheese and dressing), I had some steamed sweet potatoes. That satisfied my need for cooked food.

The one thing that kind of threw me off was after I ate breakfast yesterday (a banana, some grapes, some celery and about a quarter of an avocado), not three hours later, I was feeling hungry again. Now, I had just gone the entire day on Saturday without eating anything, and two-and-a-half hours after breakfast I was already hungry? Weird.

Today my lunch salad was a little easier to swallow. I made some dressing out of fresh lime juice and extra virgin olive oil; that added so much more flavor to the salad.

All in all, while I miss my food-food, I've been enjoying the fruits and vegetables. Likewise, I've been trying to get plenty of sleep (and have succeeded!) and took a nice 30-minute (leisurely!) walk on the trail yesterday.

I haven't decided when I'm going to "end" my detox. The plan recommends starting on a weekend: Friday night to Monday afternoon. However, I began on Saturday with a one-day fast so I don't know if I'll go all through Tuesday or just all through today (which would put me at one day: water fast + two days: detox).

In any event, you should check out Dr. Kim's website. I really like it!

Water, water, every where

A few weeks back, I considered detoxifying my body. An internal detox, that is. And an all-natural one, at that. For me, the very word implies a fresh beginning.

As much as I try to maintain a healthy lifestyle, life certainly gets in the way. Mostly in the form of stress. I believe I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again now: I'm an emotional eater.

Teaching has been immensely stressful this term and, to top things off, I haven't had the energy to make it to the gym. Typically, working out is a good stress reliever but, for the past month, I haven't even been able to muster up the energy to drag myself to the gym.

All of these things: a stressful job, a decrease in physical activity, and unhealthy food choices, have resulted in my feeling extremely weighted down. (Granted, I have put on two or three pounds which have not come off yet, but this isn't really about weight gain.) Let's not forget, our good friend Winter. Winter, coupled with the incessant grey skies of central Ohio, do not make a very encouraging pair.

Cue: Spring

And the significance of my cliche: A Fresh Beginning!

I couldn't be happier to see the mild temperatures and sunshine. Still feeling sluggish, however, I decided to check out my detox options.

I know of people who have emerged themselves into a raw-vegan, total detox lifestyle. They eat nothing cooked. Lots of fruits and vegetables, seeds, and some nuts (I think). (I really didn't research it.) I, on the other hand, was not looking for a lifestyle change this dramatic. I simply wanted to flush my system of all the crap I've been eating the past few months and start over with a healthier diet.

I considered fasting. Again, I know of people who have done this in various forms (water, juice, etc.) and have received reliable feedback from them.

After some quick Google research, I decided to start with a one-day water fast and then do a three-day full-body cleanse. (I promise to write much more on all of this tomorrow!)

I write at the tail end of my day of fasting. Surprisingly, here at hour 23(?), I am just now feeling some real pangs of hunger. Of course, I did sleep a great deal today -- not because I had no energy but because I was exhausted from the week and my body needed the rest. (That said, of course, I wouldn't have been able to run any races today either.) So, I guess for starters, my water fast has worked out quite nicely given the fact that I've been able to sleep a good part of the day away.

Sweet Sleep

I slept until noon today. In my defense, I was up until almost four this morning. Also, I napped for four hours yesterday and I'd gotten very little sleep earlier in the week. Nonetheless, all these things are indicative of a poor sleep schedule.

Getting more -- and better -- sleep was one of my resolutions for the year. One of the big "Lifestyle Change" resolutions. I'm notorious about staying up until one, two, or even three in the morning. Yet I hate sleeping late into the morning. I'm much more productive early in the day.

Ideally, I'd like to be in bed by eleven and up by seven. And given the choice, I'd rather retire earlier in the evening and wake earlier in the morning.

A good night's sleep can not only improve your mood but boost your thinking and memory power throughout the day as well as boost your immune system. There's a fabulous website called shuteye.com expounding the many benefits of sleep. For instance:

During sleep, the body secretes a growth hormone that may repair and regenerate tissue throughout the body. Many of the body's cells also increase in production and reduce the breakdown of proteins during deep sleep allowing the body to help repair damage from things like stress and ultraviolet rays–adding a hint of truth to the term "beauty sleep." The body also builds bone and muscle, and strengthens our immune system at this time. Sleep may also be instrumental in reinforcing our memories and, some experts believe, essential to processing complex emotions.

And all this goes on while I get to sleep! The site also recommends keeping track of your sleep patterns over a seven-day period and offers a fabulous Sleep Diary download. (I've already downloaded mine!)

I've always known there are benefits to a good night's sleep but I never realized how much. Now I have something to look forward to at the end of the day.

Revamping the Blog

We all need a change once in a while. A new look to get us excited about a new look.

This blog is approaching its one-year anniversary. Needless to say, things have been a little stagnant around here. However, a few faithful contributors (or mainly, Nicole!) has been breathing life into the blog. And the blog has responded.

After talking with my esteemed co-administrator, I've decided to revamp this blog. Melanie and I (and I'm sure most of our other contributors) have been through a lot since last May. Life is, after all, a learning experience. Even things we know, we must often take the time to re-learn, whether we choose to or not. And these things -- usually the simple things -- tend to be the most challenging lessons to re-learn.

One of the biggest things I've learned since last spring is how to be happy. It sounds simple but sometimes it's surprisingly complicated. And complex. And convoluted. Or so it seems.

You see, I think happiness should allow us to do things. Allow us to change our minds, to make mistakes. Happiness should allow us to be human. I also think happiness is about acceptance. Accepting other people for who they are and, of course, accepting ourselves for who we are. These two concepts should interconnect: accepting allowances [that we give and receive] and allowing acceptances [of ourselves and others].

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You may have noticed that I changed the name of this blog, slightly. I changed the spelling (not in the URL) from l-i-t-e to l-i-g-h-t. Thus, we have a light that radiates and reflects, rather than one that reduces and restricts. A light embedded in enlightenment.

I'd like to invite you all, readers and contributors, to open your minds and expand your definitions. Think about the various forms and meanings of these words: weigh, truth, light.

Each and every day we have to make decisions. Each and every day there are rewards and consequences of those decisions. And sometimes? Sacrifices. But at the end of the day, our happiness is the most important thing. Certainly, we need to be able to think ahead, project into the future, ask ourselves not only, does this make me happy now? but also is this going to make me happy tomorrow?

Then do it.

Do what makes you happy.

And then blog about it here. (Please?)

We'll see...

I went to the gym last night!

Over the past few months for financial reasons and laziness reasons I have done nothing except order out, eat horribly, and be inactive. My boyfriend has been next to me the whole time with this unhealthy lifestyle. We both have noticed not only how unhealthy we look, but also how unhealthy we feel. After deciding that something needs to be done we both went back to the gym last night after getting one year memberships (oh the commitment issues!). In order to curb our take-out eating we have set a rule: no eating out until we have gone to the gym 12 times! He wanted to make it 15 but I did not want to set myself up for failure =)

So it has begun. One trip to the gym and so far no ordering out. This also means no beloved hot chocolate from Starbucks for me and no strawberry Coolattas from Dunkin Donuts for him (we all have to sacrifice). So if people still check in with this blog I will keep you updated. I know the reason no one has heard from me in a while is because I would not want people to know how horrible I was doing. I hope others do not feel the same and will post both good and not so good. I think we all hit the same roadblocks along the way.

Is it just me?

I just wasted about a half hour watching cooking videos on YouTube.

It all started because I wanted to learn the "proper" way to fry an egg. (I've been on an egg-kick lately. A few weeks ago I purchased an eight-inch nonstick skillet and said good-bye to all my broken yolks! But of course, not before I questioned my method. You know. Maybe it wasn't the skillet, maybe it was me? Hence my Google search, which eventually led me to YouTube.)

It turns out that YouTube is a fantastic way to learn new recipes. Or tweak the ones you already use.

It also turns out that watching people cook on YouTube will increase one's appetite. Or, at the very least, initiate cravings.

Of course, that could just be me.

And why is it that after a really lovely holiday with friends and family, I find myself in a really cranky mood. Is this common holiday stress or is it just me? (Because I don't think I'm terribly stressed about the holidays...yet.)