The 20 hour theory

I have been struggling with myself for a while. I have too many hobbies, I tell myself, and that's why I have trouble sticking with learning any one thing. So I work on something for awhile and then it gets left by the wayside when I switch to something else. And I figured if I forced myself to stick with only one thing I'd be missing out on what I'm actually interested in in the moment.

I was just inspired by a ted talk about learning: click

According to this guy, you can learn most skills in just 20 hours if you break it down and practise efficiently. There was a movement awhile back that was similar, suggesting giving 100 days to learn something. But even that seemed too much. But 20 hours? I could do 20 hours.

That's just 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week for 3 months. Can I be that focused for three months? I don't know, but I'd like to try. My last attempt at bodhran failed at about 8 weeks, I haven't looked at the stars lately, or my tin whistle. Stretching has become necessary because dance class (oh, by the way, I started irish dance classes) has tightened my calves to the point of pain, so at least I'm still doing that. And my focus for the last week and a bit has been cleaning and rearranging the house. Plus I have yule booties to make for the nieces and nephew

But let's give this a try. Here's my list of things I'd like to learn:
Bodhran
Tin whistle
Constellations
Pull ups/pushups
Squatting (full, heels on the ground, resting position squat)
Drawing
Friction fire
Atlatl or spear throwing
Spinning wool

So many things, not enough time.
20 hours for each? I guess I should start with what is most compelling, which for me is bodhran right now. So starting Monday I'll be going back to it again. To keep me accountable, I'm going to try to post a video once a week to log my '20 hour progress'

Hopefully I can stick with it better than I have my past blog projects. If anyone reads this with any regularity, please, hold me to it :) And wish me luck!

Home again

Well, I've been home for quite some time now. Paleo eating was a success, although a sick toddler and then two weeks of more than full time work threw me right back into my unhealthy habits.

I sat for a bit at the earthship, but not consistently - I still have fear of the unknown hazards in nature. Makes it harder to commit to sitting. We looked at plants and canned lots and lots of applesauce though I didn't get to fire making.

It was a good visit though. I'll let you know what I've been up to lately soon :)

BC Trip!

I'm off to visit family in BC for the next two weeks. Projects in the works are: paleo meals with my mom, canning applesauce and peaches, making fire(I hope) with a bow drill, checking out the local herbs a little more in depth, and doing an earthship sit spot. Wish me luck at getting it all done and still relaxing. I'll hopefully have pictures and stories to tell when I get back.

The Plan: Sleep

I may have been a little too ambitious with the beginning of the plan. I was excited, I had energy, and then that first week was half over and I was already overwhelmed with all the changes I was trying to make combined with four days of work in a row.

I wound up exhausted and not even keeping up with housework. I just wanted to lay down and sleep.

My motivation to keep up with things disappeared because I was tired. So the next part of the plan involves fixing my sleep habits.

My eventual goal is to be asleep by 10 pm. Theoretically, I can then have a bit of time for my own morning ritual before Jamie gets up. This will be dependent on getting dinner made and dishes done before Jamie goes to bed so I can put them away after, feed the kitties, brush my teeth, knit while watching a TV show and read 20-30 mins (by candle light?) before going to sleep.

I'm going to start with a no phone time in bed rule and try putting my new bedtime routine in effect first, and then slowly move bedtime earlier.

Here's hoping I'll be celebrating better sleep soon - like this little guy :) (this pic is more than a year and a half old. He's so big now. And much less sleepy)

Week One

This first week has gone by rather quickly. And in some ways I've been successful, in other ways not so much. Here's how it went.

1. Movement

      I started the week hoping to move more and do alignment exercises. I started the week alright, but soon started missing days. I decided that I'd just add the two days' movement together the next day. This worked up until I was out of the house 4 days in a row. This week on work days I'll try to get my stretching done before I go.

2. Paleo

      I feel like I kind of only half did this - I had made 'slush' as a birthday drink and wanted to finish it off so I ate paleo but drank  a sweet pop/juice/vodka blend for the first 2-3 days. Plus beyond that first day at work I didn't have dinner leftovers to take for lunch. I did eat more healthy food than normal, and less sugar. So that's a step in the right direction. 

I'm keeping on with it - I think I'll have to make sure I  keep enough greens around to have a big salad for those days supper doesn't have enough left for lunch. And I need to stay stocked up on the quick and easy snacks.

I feel like I fell off the wagon in the last three or four days. All I can do is head back to it now. I figure its the same with the movement - you don't have to do it all at once but the longer you keep at it, the easier it becomes.

Next up: my plan for improving sleep (duration and quality)

Paleo Meal Plan

I think 'here's what I ate this week' posts boring. So I'm not going to do one of those. I do want to explain how I've set up my basic meal planning structure though.

Breakfast

I've actually had a breakfast plan for a while now - I had to make sure I was giving Jamie a variety to expose him to different foods. He's not too keen on new foods so I figure if I'm giving it to him once a week it hopefully won't be too strange to him.

(Like these - these look delicious)

M: paleo muffins/nut butter balls
T: apple and n how aboutut butter
W: fruit egg bake
Th: savory egg bake
F: paleo pancakes or hot cereal
S: fruit and scrambled eggs
S: fried/hardboiled eggs and bacon/sausage

Lunch tends to be leftovers from supper the night before. I'd have a giant salad but Jamie isn't a fan of lettuce unless he's pulled it from the dirt himself.

Dinner

For a while I tried to have category days (eg. Monday was soup night, Tuesday beef, etc) but had a hard time sticking to it. Now I just make a list once a week and write it on my white board. This week I wrote:

M: Jon makes
T: Soup/stew
W: taco salad
Th: Curry chicken over cauli. rice
F: teyaki salmon broccoli & coleslaw
S: Jon makes
S: spaghetti squash bake and salad

This is actually mostly for next week, since once we have something I erase it and put something else on. Also, sometimes things move down the list - spaghetti squash bake has moved down the list from Wednesday earlier in the week because its been too hot to bake anything. Jon makes supper on days that I work.
                  
So that's my meal planning in its most basic form. I've gotten a bunch of Paleo cook books from the library for inspiration. It really helps.

The Plan: Paleo Foods

Part two of my plan involves changing how I'm eating.

A few years ago I stumbled on a website while looking up whether artificial sweeteners trigger insulin (they can). The articles looked interesting so I kept reading. And discovered the paleo/primal/caveman eating/lifestyle.

It seemed to make logical sense so I started trying out some recipes. The food was delicious and made me feel great. I made the leap and cut out grains and refined sugar. I was far from perfect (mostly my addiction to sourdough bread) but still slimmed down some and had more energy.

I even tried a two week elimination/autoimmune diet to check for dietary causes for the eczema I've had since I was a kid and the more recently appeared hs pimples I was getting on my inner thighs and armpits (they were also on my butt - I'd had them there before as a teenager without realizing what they were).

When I started adding foods back in starting with those I was least likely to have issues with. Or so I thought. I added dairy back second and withing 12 hours had crazy itching and hs bumps forming already. And I kinda went 'screw this, I'm not doing another two weeks of deprivation to calm the reaction down'. So I know I have issues with dairy and eggs are fine but everything else (I'm mostly thinking of nightshades) is still a big question mark.

I was doing pretty well, even starting a whole30 with a dance friend when I got pregnant. And then nauseous. And I fell off the healthy eating into 'you feel sick all day so just eat whatever makes you feel better'. I ate a lot of my childhood favourites along with a ton of fruit. And creamy coleslaw (something I used to hate).

Anyway, the point is that I stopped thinking about eating whole foods and just ate whatever I craved. Which was mostly okay while the boy was on the inside. But once I was a sleep-deprived new mom? Bring on the cookies, muffins, and chocolate.

I wrote down my waist size 8 weeks after giving birth. It was 44.5 inches (just to be clear this was measured an inch below the belly button). Before I got pregnant my waist was around 41 inches. In the past I'd felt pretty good at 38 or 39 inches but my body seemed to settle at 40-41 unless I was super strict with the food.

Unfortunately, almost two years of motherhood has reduced my movement/exercise time to almost nothing and while I've tried a few times to ease myself back into paleo my eating habits still include a lot of grains, processed foods and sugar. Currently my waist is between 47 and 48 inches.

So now I try something different. Starting tomorrow I go paleo cold turkey. I am still breastfeeding, so I'm not going to reduce carbs a crazy amount or anything. But I will focus on lots of produce with meals. I'll probably do a bit of paleo baking too - I have apples and rhubarb that need using.

I'll try to post my meal plan for the week tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great Canada Day!
    

The Plan: Movement

I have had enough.

Enough of what, you ask?

Enough of being unhealthy, always tired, pelvic floor prolapse, lost flexibility, itchy psoriasis, strange pimply breakouts (hidradenitis suppurativa), and the extra tummy fat I've been carrying around.

When I list it all together like that I sound like a mess, don't I?

Well, its time to clean the mess up, and I have a plan!

The first part of the plan is to add more movement to my day. Not all at once and nothing strenuous - I have to consider the prolapse when creating my exercise plans so I don't end up making it worse (wouldn't want my vagina to fall on the floor now, would I?)

Luckily, I came across Katy Bowman's blog a while back. I'll be using some exercises from her newest book and her blog as the basis for my first few weeks of movement.

Hopefully I can start realigning things and get some flexibility back and then start adding in other things like yoga and dance. We'll see where I end up.

So here's my basic plan to start:
Week 1&2: Katy Moves
Week 3: Alternate Katy Moves and 20 min yoga
Week 4: 20 min walk to park with Jamie after supper
Week 5: Do 40 min yoga on yoga days
Week 6: Replace 1 yoga day with front splits DVD
Week 7: Replace 1 yoga with SFactor 1 dvd
Week 8: Do sprints instead of walking 1 day/week
Week 9: Add plank to Katy Moves
Week 10: Add pushups to Katy Moves
Week 11: Do 1 hour pole dance 1 day/week, using Katy Moves as part of warm up and cool down
Week 12: Pick a beginner movnat workout to try on a Katy Moves day (use KM as warm up or cool down)

All the Happy (current projects)

In order to find my happy again these last 6 months, I've really been focusing on what I need and when I feel better.

Jamie and I go for a walk in fish creek park Wednesday afternoons, weather permitting. We went one really cold day and I decided to only go when the weather is nice. If its pouring rain or -20 out we still go outside but we stick closer to home.

We also go to a 0-2yrs play group at the library Thursday mornings. Its been nice connecting a bit with the other parents there and Jamie likes being around other kids.

Keeping on top of the cleaning keeps me happy - I have a hard time relaxing if the place is a mess. Doesn't have to be spotless, but if it feels overwhelmingly messy then I'm not happy.

I've been trying to get back to my paleo eating, getting enough sleep and moving more. I haven't been taking care of myself and I know I feel better doing these things. I recently tried adding nap time yoga and I hadn't realized how stiff I'd gotten. Plus my tummy kind of gets in the way - I found a note I made on my waist size 8 weeks after having Jamie and I've gained three inches since then. I need to eat well and move more so I can do more playtime with Jamie without getting sore.

I've also started learning Irish drumming (bodhran). Something I'd always wanted to do and its really fun. The last few weeks have been challenging practise-time wise. But its fun and I'm always in a good mood after. When I got my drum I also got a tin whistle and I've made it a point to sing more often.

I'm still knitting Jon's scarf from christmas, I'd like to finish my kamana one, my spira Liana assignments, and get the kitties back out together. And I put my pole up but I haven't really gotten back to it yet. Must dance more! There's always something I'm trying to add in that's not quite getting there. I suppose I should add go to a dentist and an optometrist to the list. And work on budget details. So yeah. But at least I'm doing quite a few things I love. And I think it makes all the difference.

Time for Change Again

I know I've neglected the blog a bunch. Its been six months and last update I had grand plans for cheering myself back from sadness. And I have, but blogging wasn't part of it.

I guess I'll start by catching up. Last fall I found myself strangely depressed. I think part of it was changing baby hormones, and part of it was mourning the loss of the last of my pre-mommy identity.

I mourned not going back to my old job at nutrition house. I felt betrayed by my manager - I thought she was a friend and would be happy to have me back a day or two a week. Instead she 'didn't want to upset' the other employees, and had 'no obligation' to allow me back since she'd bought the franchise so technically it was a different business.

 So much for maternity leave preventing shit like that. I was the only employee affected - basically discriminating against me for having a child.

And then, right after I find out I need to find a new job (Hubby doesn't make enough right now for me to stay home with the boy) my friend who I'd been hiking and CSA share-splitting with all spring/summer suddenly wants me to pay for gas for our outings (which is fair) but I had no income to be able to do that when she asked. And she suddenly stopped talking to me...because we can't hang out if I can't pay for gas? This still confuses me. There are stay close to home things we could have done that don't require gas. But then, we never did quite connect fully as friends.

So between job-loss and fair weather friends, that was my 'postpartum depression'. Which was really mourning the last of my old life.

Complicating things even more, a couple months after this I find out my parents are splitting up (not a huge surprise - there were signs, but it still sucks), and my best friend from high school that I'd been trying to reconnect with stopped replying to any attempt to talk to her. In fact, I still haven't heard anything.

Most recently, at the end of May, my father in law died from lung cancer.

Looking back on all this, its no wonder I was a little off balance and having a difficult time finding things to be happy about back then. Its been a rough year.

But here I still am, and I've finally found my 'unreasonable happiness' again. It feels cleansing to write this out without getting stuck in the emotion of it. Finally ready to let it go I think.

Next post: things that make me happy!