Are You Happy?

Jenna over at Eat, Live, Run asked this simple question today. To be honest I might not have answered it if there had not been a contest involved. ;)

Why?

I am not usually a very optimistic person. I often look for hurdles and stuff that has to be done rather that stuff that makes me happy. Today though I thought about the question for less than about 2 seconds and I was able to answer, "Yes!". What is funny is I did not really think about if I was or not, I just knew that at that moment, I was not unhappy. It was almost a reflex. When I did think about why, I came up with really simple things.

1. Gorgeous weather this morning (doggy walk and my run and sunroof open on my drive to work)
2. Yummy breakfast (more overnight oats)
3. Lunch at Whole Foods, outside, in said gorgeous weather very soon
4. The smell of soup cooking last night reminding me of fall

I stopped at that because the hurdles were trying to creep into my thoughts. This just reminds me to think more in the moment. I don't mean abandon all sense of planning for the future by blowing all my cash on a trip to Anguilla (would be nice though). I mean live in the moment in small ways; a good breakfast, a good sleep, doggie kisses and good cooking smells from my kitchen. I have worries, but maybe I don't have to worry about them 24/7. That might take some effort on my part but the way I am feeling makes me want to start.

Hooked! Overnight Oats

I know my posting has been very bad but I am trying not to pressure myself too much with it. I also know I feel better when I do it so I will try to do it more often.

I HAVE however been reading lots of other blogs, many are health and fitness blogs. What is great about them is that they don't make me feel bad about where I am in my health and fitness goals but they DO have great ideas that I can use just about every day.

Just about every single one talks about Overnight Oats. Now this is not the steel cut variety, it is the rolled variety and it requires no cooking. No cooking is a good thing in the steamy summer where your a/c limps along. I do love me some oats though. I had no been putting off trying it...I just kept forgetting to make them the night before.

Many of the recipes (and I use the term recipe lightly b/c there are sooooo many variations on it) call for a protein powder but I left it out as I don't do quite as much exercising at these ladies do and a bowl of hot oats usually keeps me going till lunch time. I went very basic.

1/2 cup rolled oats (not the quick ones)
1/2 cup Vanilla Almond Milk
cinnamon
pinch of salt

I used a fork to mix together the milk, cinnamon and salt before adding the oats. I was worried the cinnamon would clump on one section of the oats if I didn't do that step. I then added the oats and stirred to combine. This was all in a 2 cup plastic Ziploc container with lid.

When I pulled it out of the fridge this morning. And gave is a whiff, it smelled really good. The sweetness of the Vanilla Almond Milk and the cinnamon made it smell a little like rice pudding.

Then I tasted it. YUM! Even without additional fixin's it was great! I did add blueberries and a little yogurt. Very good but really didn't even need the yogurt! I am thinking a little cocoa powder would be excellent as well. Might try that next. The consistency was really pretty much like oatmeal but not as saturated. I really liked the texture.

If you are looking for a new quick breakfast, I HIGHLY recommend it! Wish I had pics but I ate it too quickly. ;)

Much thanks to Jenna at Eat, Live, Run and Sabrina at Rhodeygirl Tests for the inspiration!

One of the Funniest Things to Come Out of My Cape Cod Vacation

This is my brother and his friend (ok, probably more like adopted brother he and another one of my brother's friends have been coming with us to the Cape for years). I am not exactly sure how it started but it was hilarious. If you don't think so, check with your doc. ;)

Gym Fear

I knew it was coming. This week temps are topping out at 100+ and being southeastern PA the humidity is not much lower. I can't run in this...even in the early morning.

So, I joined a gym.

I am not completely uncoordinated. I used to rock a step class like no one's business. That was fourteen years ago. I have fallen off the elliptical in my home and I tripped over my dog last month, spraining my ankle. So getting on machines in front of people makes me nervous. I don't want to be 'that girl that fell off the tread mill' or 'that girl that fell off
Also, that complementary personal training session that gyms give you? Just annoying. Some random PT shows you around and puts you on a cookie cutter circuit and looks very disinterested while doing it. It has ALWAYS annoyed me, in every gym I have ever been to. You are doing your reps and they are looking around, maybe walking away, not at all interested in what you are doing. I always feel like I am bothering them somehow. Maybe it would be different if I was PAYING them but they could at the very least TRY to get me to pay them.

Don't even get me started on the locker room. Talk about judgment. I don't need that much info about perfect strangers and I don't give that much info to people I know.

So all in all, I already have issues with self esteem and body image. They just seem compounded when I enter a gym. I guess the only thing to do about that fear is face it. Go every day, get used to it and walk around in my too big running shorts and tee and not give it a second thought.

...I am not walking around naked in the locker room though. There is only so much judgment my thighs can take.

Pre-Guilting

Oh it's bad, it is. Guilt is something I was born with and has been difficult to remove. It's like that spiderweb you run into that you can't see and you are stuck with that icky feeling of the web strands and no matter how hard you try to remove them, you still feel them. *shudder*

I used to think guilt was just a part of my Catholic upbringing and if I left the Catholic behind, I'd leave the guilt there too. Not so much.

Even worse, I have found a NEW way to feel this horrible thing, pre-guilt. I just identified it this morning when I was looking at the sucky weather report for the next 10 days. Next week we are to have temps above 95 degrees and not below 72 degrees. This is bad for the girl that has been trying to get back to her normal running pace after being hampered by an ankle sprain and no gym membership. So even though I have absolutely no control about the weather I already feel guilty that I am not going to run on Monday.

How sick am I?

I haven't even slacked off yet and here I am feeling guilty becuase on Monday, in the future, I am not going to run. This is just ridiculous. I have to do something about this before I completely lose my mind and start blaming myself for the BP oil spill (which I already kinda do, driving an SUV and all).

So how do I do it? How do I stop guilt (for things that are unnecessary...I mean, if I was nasty for no reason to someone I would still feel guilty) from taking over?

How do you do it? How do you stop guilt?

This is Just Weird

So we have very little storage space in our house and it is MOST evident in our kitchen. I actually had to forgo a set of dishes because they were too big for the cabinet. I found a set that work but I definitely need to reorganize a little and maybe put some things in the yard sale pile. The strange part is, I know EXACTLY what I should get rid of or at lease streamline but I cannot bring myself to do it and I don't know why.

Coffee mugs. I know, really odd.

I am not talking about the ones that match my new dishes I am talking about the ones we have been given at little gifts or maybe one that I picked up while traveling. I set it in my mind that I should keep three and I'd let P pick three to keep as well. I could not do it. It was like trying to pick stuffed animals to keep and the rest to send to....um...a farm.

I think I get this from my Mom. She has a HUGE collection of mugs that she doesn't need as well. Seriously I think she has like 30 in her cabinet. Seriously! Also, I drink coffee every weekday from travel mugs (that I don't get rid of until they are falling apart. Not dishwasher safe? Whatever) so it's not like I am using the stupid ceramic mugs every day, only on the weekends.

Why do I need to keep two Christmas mugs in my cabinet? Why do I need a mug from Cape Cod that was made in China? Why do I need any mug that is smaller than 6 ounces? I don't need them so why is it so hard to get rid of them? Why am I keeping the stainless steel ones that burn my lips when I try to drink from them?

I just really hope I am not moving into Hoarders territory.

Do you have anything that you know you should get rid of but can't seem to?

Best Laid Plans or What Do I Do Now?

I should just stop trying to plan more than a week ahead when it comes to life. Something always pops up and for some reason lately I have not been very good at adjusting to the flow...

ok

I have never been good at adjusting to the flow but I digress. It seems like lately every time I plan out my meals or exercise regime for more than a week, something happens to drastically screw everything up. Take this week for example, I was looking forward to getting back on track with my morning workouts. I had been fighting allergies/summer cold/crap for about 2 weeks. I get up out of bed on Monday morning and go out with the dogs for their walk and then my run. Dear sweet M-dog decides he wants to jump after another dog which leads me to falling down and rolling my ankle...it was not a small roll, I got the sickening pop you hear when you know you are in for a good deal of swelling. I was probably just about as far from my house as you can get on our normal route. I got up and limped home with the dogs and my ankle swelled to the point where it looked like I swallowed half a tennis ball and it ended up on my ankle.

So, no run, no elliptical no cardio really for me. I was able to at least walk the dogs this morning but it was obvious that I could not run or really do a lot of pressure on it. So this interrupts my long term plan of being in better shape before my vacation in a month. I know I still have a month but a couple pounds have popped up out of (almost) nowhere too and so I feel like I am losing a battle here.

I think the lesson here is that I need to be more flexible and more prepared to be flexible. I see the lesson in the syllabus but I don't see me learning it. Seriously, I am actually frowning as I am writing this, like a gumpy old man that needs to switch from rabbit ears to a digital converter box. How am I going to do this?