I'b god a cod

 The lead-up to Christmas tends to feel like a race. I galloped and galloped and made it past the post with no major disasters but of course, now I have a cold.

Do you do this? Get sick as soon as the pressure's off? I can pretty much set my clock by it. So here I am in the lull between Christmas and normal life... in bed, drugged up, blowing my nose... Oh well, at least it's forcing me to rest. I guess that's the point.

It's also quite nice to have some fallow time to acknowledge the change of season. All the frantic Christmas festivity is over. All five advent candles have been lit and been snuffed. Winter solstice has been. We're now into proper winter (it's suddenly gotten colder) with the creep towards spring, more daylight, a few hardly bulbs peeking through the soil and the bloom into full summer. 

 

Awww... look at her face!

 I have a massive list of chores that I could be doing on in my few days off, but I'm not able to do any of them.
 
 Hopefully tomorrow I'll be up to mattress shopping as our  landlord's mattress has really given up the ghost. We got Christmas money to go towards a new mattress and we're itching to spend it. It will be lovely to have a comfy bed.

  I'm also looking forward to be healthy enough to get on the   wagon of eating nothing but vegetables and taking a daily run.  Well, I exaggerate somewhat, but I am a big blob at the moment  and need to indulge in the traditional January masochism. Soon, my pretty, pretty...

 Right, now I think I'll go back to my book. Bye!

Do you feel lucky?

 

The other night I was achy and tired from several nights of poor sleep. My husband was out for the night. I picked up a book and a cardigan, poured a glass of chilled rose, shoved my feet into some shoes and walked out to sit by the harbour. 

I watched night fall in stages like a keen stagehand was dimming the lights, bit by bit.The water rippled and scintillated hypnotically, its pattern broken by fast rowing boats pulled by crews straining at the oars.

There was a tapestry of sounds - a single cry from a seagull, swallows flitting and twittering after some final bugs, people laughing and chatting outside the pub, the padding strides and puffed breath of occasional runners...

My cashmere cardigan was warm and soft around my shoulders, the wine was sweet and mellow as I sipped, the book was excellent but I spent long moments just soaking up the scene around me. 

I felt so lucky.

Do you treat your body worse than you treat your car?

I'm related to a mechanic* and he often rolled his eyes at how badly I treated my car. No oil, no services, not checking the tyres... I even ran out of petrol once or twice. I've gotten slightly better with age and more money. I do get regular services and get nagging issues checked out but I'm still not brilliant at keeping up with the basics.

Still, I was thinking the other day that I'm probably even worse at looking after my body than I am at looking after my car.

I have a theory that people tend to focus on one or two aspects of their lives to the exclusion of the others.

There are lots of different ways you can slice and dice the concept of wellbeing but the main division I see is between body and mind. I know lots of people (myself included) who are prone to treat their bodies worse than they treat their cars - not giving them proper fuel, regular maintance, grinding their gears (okay, the metaphor is getting laboured here...). 

Still, why do we do this? Why do we focus on our careers and sedentary things using our minds while our bodies seize up and rust away (metaphorically speaking...).     

                                                                      

I've put on about eight pounds (or four kilos) in the last year. It's gradually crept up with more indulgence in 'treats', more takeaways or pre-prepared food and less movement. I bit the bullet (another metaphor... I'll stop commenting on this now) last week did an assessment at the gym. Owch! The results were not good.

So, the worm has turned and so far I've had a good week on My Fitness Pal with diet and exercise. I need to keep doing this for a couple of months at least to get back to where I was a year ago. Then see how I go from there. 

I need to remember that I am a whole person: body, mind and spirit. I need to make sure I take time and energy to look after all three. I'm committed to making a change - let's see if I can actually learn this lesson this time!

What about you - how are you doing with your car and/ or your body?

* The picture is not my relative!

What might surprise you about yoga - updated

Oh my goodness, I love yoga! Sorry to give the game away so early in the blog post, but really, I do! So I want to share the joy and bust a few myths (Scroll to the end for my caveat).

•  You don't need to be flexible or fit or young or skinny. A good teacher will encourage everyone to work to their own level and will give different options for the poses. You can even do yoga with longstanding injuries or disabilities.
•  Yoga is a real workout - with regular practice you gain balance, flexibility and strengthen muscles through you whole body.
• Yoga doesn't usually involve spiritual or religious practice (again, it depends on the version you do, but the types I've done don't involve anything more alarming than a few easily ignorable references to chakras.)

I did my first yoga class for over two years last night. I was really tense and stressed - I woke up with a headache due to the tension in my neck and jaw. I toddled along to my gym and met the tiny perky young blonde woman who took the class. We sat and breathed for a bit, we went through various poses and stretches - mostly downward facing dog, lots and lots of downward facing dog.

http://www.active.com/health/articles/pose-of-the-month-downward-facing-dog

 Supposedly some of the benefits of this particular pose are that it:

• Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
• Energizes the body
• Stretches the shoulders, hamstrings, calves, arches, and hands
• Strengthens the arms and legs
• Improves digestion
• Relieves headache, insomnia, back pain, and fatigue

Downward facing dog and the rest of the poses certainly did a wonderful job of relaxing the tension in my neck, jaw, shoulders and hamstrings. To end the class we did a brief relaxation exercise lying flat on our backs on the floor - bliss! Then I floated out, feeling a million times better than when I entered the room.

So basically, I'm enthusiastically recommending that you give it go (if you haven't already). I did Hatha yoga for a couple of years in New Zealand. My class yesterday was Ashtanga yoga which is supposed to be a lot more physically demanding, but actually it was very similar to my Hatha yoga class, just a touch faster in moving from pose to pose. This is a helpful article about the different styles of yoga.

What do you think - are you already a fan? Have you tried it and thought it's not for you?

Update:
I did my first (and last) class with a new yoga teacher last night and now I see why people can be apprehensive about it. It was Ashtanga yoga similar to the first class I did at this gym but the atmosphere was competitive with only one option given for each pose. The (male) instructor adjusted people to help them get into the right position. That's okay but one of my adjustments involved full body contact which isn't my cup of tea with someone I've just met!

We were asked to do quite difficult balancing poses and ended the class with a couple of inversions that were completely beyond me. I sat there feeling like a fool while people attempted to balance their whole body weight on the arms while upside down. Not a great experience.

So my summary is, find out as much as you can about classes you're thinking of taking, the teaching style, the difficulty level etc. I've experienced four or five yoga teachers and this is the first one that I couldn't be doing with, so I'm sure you'll be able to find one who suits.

Saturday 6:43am or Crashing Cars and Getting Sick

So I'm pretty stressed right now. I've got big work projects due in a few weeks - my reputation is on the line and there are a lot of variables to juggle. And I've got a couple of other big life issues I'm dealing with at the same time. I'm holding it together, but I struggled to sleep until late last night then I was awake and switched on like a light bulb (ping! awake now!) at 6:43 this morning.

(Actually I had a really useful thought about work that I had to email to myself, but still...)

So how do we deal with this stress thing?

In my younger years I had some pretty colourful ways of dealing with stress - mostly getting sick and crashing cars. One year I did my Uni exams in a neck brace because I'd developed torticollis (the muscles in my shoulder and neck went into a serious spasm so I couldn't straighten my neck).

Just before my wedding (and exams and moving house), someone thought they could move their car into the lane that my car was in (nope, they couldn't!). Thankfully that one was judged to be their fault so insurance paid. I also got bronchitis two weeks before my wedding so I got married the first day I'd been out of my sick bed. AND I had a massive pimple! People seemed to think I looked good anyway...

These days I don't crash cars (God willing) and I seem to have managed to teach myself that getting sick doesn't help. But what can I do to cope with the strain? About the only thing I can find to do is comfort-eating. When things get tough, ice cream and donuts help a bit.

If I'm feeling sensible and/or virtuous I force myself to go to the gym. Classes like Pilates really help me remember I have a body and work on relaxing it a bit. A blat on the cardio machines to some pumping music also helps let off some steam. It's just tricky to actually get myself organised and in the door of the place.

Going to church helps to put things in perspective and to keep me focused on not being a bitch even though I'm stressed.

Um, what else? I try not to drink too much wine as it messes with my sleeping patterns and just generally makes me feel worse. Hmm... that's about all I got.

Ideas, anyone?

New Year - can't quite...

Wallpaperich.com

I'm usually ready on January the 1st with a list of plans but this year I find myself wandering like a rudderless boat. Where to go? How to get there?

Lisa's brilliant post explores her motivations and ways of removing obstacles in order to achieve her goals for the New Year. I'm not sure if I am in a place to be able to dissect my own goals with such clarity. However, it's worth a shot. Let's give it a go then, using her framework.

1. Abstraction i.e. what are the overall, big picture urges?
The first thing that comes to mind is health. Somewhere vaguely hanging around my mind is the idea of growth, but I'm too tired and busy to contemplate growth at the moment, so let's just stick with the idea of 'Health' for the moment.

2. Next level of detail i.e. what do I mean?
Well, my physical and mental health could do with a bit of improvement. My spiritual health is okay, I think. My social well being is also okay, at a superficial level at least. (I'm using the Maori concept of holistic health; Hauora to unpack the idea of health.)

3. Obstacles i.e. as Lisa says, "It’s a waste of capacity to bash away heedlessly at what you want. Better to try as hard to remove obstacles as to set goals."
So, what is getting in the way of health?

·         Mainly, putting 90% of my energy into work. People have limited willpower and energy. I have been putting most of my mental and physical effort in one place, leaving not enough time or energy for anything much else. 

·         Also, a lack of routine. Habit is a brilliant way to deal with things like physical health, for example eating the same healthy breakfast each morning or going for a walk every Saturday morning.

4. Resolutions
Hmm... this is where I come a cropper. Putting less effort into work isn’t really an option as I do actually want to stay employed and progress within the organisation.
What to do? Or not do? What are the options?

Firstly, if I’m too busy, is there anything that I can not do? Well, no, I think I’ve already gotten rid of as much as I reasonably can.

Since moving to England, I've stopped a lot of things that used to consume my time. We have a small flat with no garden, I’ve pretty much stopped cooking (and don’t even buy food quite often enough) and cleaning (We do a burst every month or so... and keep the essentials like washing clothes going during the week). I don't volunteer any more. I have one hobby. Well, two if you count blogging, but that comes and goes according to busy-ness. Hmm... possibly three hobbies now I come to think of it... anyway, I do need to socialise a bit!

No, I don’t think there’s anything I can stop. So how do I manage to start some healthy things?

Well, I signed up to do a Dryathon (i.e. not drink alcohol) during January to raise funds for Cancer Research UK. This obviously has some health benefits, though I have been turning to chocolate or ice cream at times in place of a glass of wine.

I’m also avoiding red meat and processed meats i.e. bacon, chorizo etc. (Mmm... chorizo!). This is surprisingly restrictive for example when choosing a quiche, pizza or soup. Still, also healthy as these are things I particularly should avoid.

I have also gotten a bit more rigorous about walking 20 minutes each way to work even if it’s raining (hint, it’s always raining).

Still, it's not enough to actually lead to healthy. 

I think I've come to a standstill in my thinking here - any suggestions?

Hit around the head with a 2 by 4

For those who are wondering, a 2 by 4 is a wood used in building houses - I think it used to be two inches high by four inches wide. In New Zealand it's kind of pronounced as one word i.e. toobafor.

Anyway, I feel rather like I've been walloped with one. I am under a LOT of pressure at work with long days of travel and far more work than I can cover in the time I have. Yesterday was a particularly full-on day and by the end of it, I was a zombie.

I ate dinner in front of Dr Who then watched Sherlock (mmm... Cumberbatch, so soothing) and had a bath with lavender oil so I felt a bit more human but still... This weekend is kind of feeling like the eye of the storm.

I'm sitting in an incredibly messy room with chores that need doing all around me, including some Christmas prep.

Nontheless, it's a beautiful, still morning with blue(ish) skies and goldfinches tweeting in the trees outside. A couple of local cats popped in the window for cuddles and to play with our Christmas ornaments for a bit this morning. And there is always coffee. I will try to use these couple of days to rest and refresh myself a bit for the big push on to the holidays.

So, that's enough from me. Enjoy your weekends, All!