Soooo, How Are You? :)

Wow.... I have been putting off blogging for ever and now there are so many subjects to cover that I feel this post will be a doozie. So bare with me please.

Gosh, where to start?

Okay, Food Matters by Mark Bittman is a revelation. I know that I am super late on hopping on this bandwagon but what can I say? I tend to come to things in my own time. To sum up; in order to shrink your global footprint, eat consciously, feel better and yes, even loose weight you should eat local, eat mostly plants, animal protein as more of a side dish and stay away from processed foods. You may be thinking, well duh Olivia, many books have said such things. But for some reason they way Mr. Bittman writes about it makes sense to this lay person.

So I have been putting his ideas to work. The thing to remember is that it's not about what you can't have it's about what you can. So I have been juggling several different approaches. The one that seems to be working for the moment is eating mostly fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains with meat being a side dish or a flavoring. In fact what I have been doing is saving animal protein for my evening meal ( one of many positives to this approach is since I mostly work out in the evening the protein helps to repair my muscles during sleep.) Plus the meat I am purchasing is from my local butcher from a local source so that makes me feel kinda good. :)

I must admit it has been a little challenging reminding myself not to order meat when I go out and to try to stick to the mostly vegetarian menu options but other than that it's been pretty awesome. I feel much more energetic, I am sleeping better and you know what the best thing about this change is? It's so much friendlier to my wallet. You will be amazed at the amount of savings you will enjoy when you mostly buy fruit, veggies, legumes and grains. So give Food Matters a read, I got mine from my local library.

Moving on to exercise (groan.) I gotta be honest... I can definitely improve my commitment to exercise. I was doing quite well for a few weeks in November but admit that I lost my way. I started back up again this week partly because I have been feeling so much more energy from the Food Matters menu but also because I have been thinking about goals. I have been reading what Krissie at Questions For Dessert has been up to for the past couple of months. That girl is a runnin' fool and I love it! In fact running has been on my mind a lot lately. I really admire the people I see out there every day running, taking that time out for themselves and getting stronger every day. Many of my clients are runners and I just love to hear them talk about the feeling they get when they run... the Runner's High I believe it's called. It just sounds so amazing.

I know that I am a quite a bit away from being able to run for exercise. Any sort of bouncing exercise tends to hurt (if you know what I mean) so I have to always find alternative ways of doing things. I hope to one day not have to worry about alternatives, to one day be able to just hop into any exercise without feeling so incredibly overwhelmed at first. Here's hoping or should I say hopping? ;)

Moving Day approaches. Well, not till the middle of January but it feels like it's next week. I am starting to freak a little because I feel as though the packing will never get done. Work has picked up in many ways and slowed in some but I seem to have little time to do home stuff except at night but by then I am tired and just want to lay in bed and read. Hence the not so frequent blogging. Even with all the stress I am still super excited. I love the house I will be moving too. I really enjoy the folks I will be sharing the house with and I really enjoy the fact that it is out in the country. Don't get me wrong, I love my little historic town but it seems like the University is taking over and the college kids are infesting every single apartment building downtown. I have nothing against college kids but let's call a spade a spade and admit that loud obnoxious partying until the wee hours of the morning almost every night starts to take it's toll. I used to be there, I was that young once so I don't throw a big stink about it. Instead I chose to move elsewhere.

I hope to have to pictures to show you soon of the new place. I have to paint at some point before I move into my room and hope that will only take a day or two. The kitchen is so lovely... so much room and counter space. I find myself becoming more creative with food when I am over there. There is a big porch with rocking chairs and a beautiful two story shed that the upstairs can be converted into an art studio. I can't wait!!!!

Enough about me, what have you been up to?