balance

Balance is not living your life on a mountain top. We don't all have the option of jetting off to India to find ourselves so we have to look at what balance means to us individually.

Even at the best of times, my "balanced" life would probably look like chaos to most people, and I'm okay with that. Right now, balance means letting a lot of stuff slide since my partner is working six days a week, I have two children, I work outside the home and I'm in grad school.

It would be awesome if I could get to yoga everyday, or workout for an hour five times a week, but right now it's not going to happen. The balance I'm looking for includes being nice to my kids even when I'm stressed (doesn't always happen) maintaining a semblance of order (which for me sometimes means that there's nothing growing on the plates that didn't get washed from three days ago) and managing to find the time, in all of this craziness to do something enjoyable.

I picked up my knitting needles for the first time in months last week and did it ever feel good! Starting this week I'm going back to no sugar (my birthday week AND Valentines day derailed that goal) and I'm hoping to add ten minutes of meditation in, once a day. Wish me luck!

Letting it all go....

Last August I visited a Naturapath in hopes that I he would give me some kind of magic potion to help me lose weight. Now, like most people, I knew in my heart of hearts that I wouldn't loose weight and keep it off by taking supplements or tinctures or eating the latest kind of diet meal-in-a-bar but I didn't care! I was desperate! I wanted a magic bullet.

He encouraged me to start the blood type diet (which I'm not advocating for, though I'm sure it's helped some people) and told me that my biggest problem was my anger. My anger? Surely he was talking to someone else in the room (though I didn't see anyone in there but the two of us). Long story short I didn't end up going back to him but I did ruminate on his "diagnosis".

I began to notice that I was angry, though I hid it at work and only lashed out at my (long suffering) husband and kids. I came to realize that they don't deserve to live with a perpetually angry mother and wife and that I did in fact have a problem with anger.

Okay, if you've read this far maybe you're wondering...what is this blog really going to be about? Well, I'll tell you. Although it's not a diet or fitness blog, diet and fitness will be discussed. It's not a religious blog but spirituality will be discussed. It's not a humorous blog but I hope I will sometimes make you laugh. What this blog IS about is wellness: holistic wellness and what happens when a stressed out, angry and overweight mother of two, rn and grad student decides to find balance in the midst of chaos.

I hope you'll share your insights and experiences along the way as I navigate this crazy life of mine! I need friends along the way.

Right now, these are the things I've been doing:

I joined Sparkpeople.com and I like there. Good support and lots of interesting groups.
I'm avoiding sugar as much as possible. I went a week without it and I want to cut it out as much as possible. Eating sugar seems to make me angrier, does anyone know why?
Moving more: to me this means working on the C25K (couch to 5K for those of you who haven't heard of it)
Drinking my water! 90 oz a day my friends....

What do you want to let go of in your life? Let me know!