April 2013 – Bucket List Journey

April 30, 2013April 28, 2013

The Energy Project

I found this quiz on the weekend that I wanted to share with you. It’s called the Energy Audit. It asks a series of questions about your performance at work, how you feel at work, whether you are doing the things you want to do etc and then ranks you out of 100% on being physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally energized. I scored 40%, lowest on the mental energy score which I would tend to agree with. I received an email in my inbox highlighting the problematic statements I affirmed, which helps me to hone in on what to improve. None of them surprise me, I knew they were bad as soon as I clicked them:

I often eat lunch at my desk, if I eat lunch at all.
I frequently find myself feeling irritable, impatient or anxious at work, especially when demand is high.
I have difficulty focusing on one thing at a time and I am easily distracted during the day, especially by email.
I spend much of my time reacting to immediate demands rather than focusing on activities with longer-term value and leverage.
I rarely have any time when my mind is quiet and free of thoughts.
My decisions at work are often more influenced by external demands than by a strong, clear sense of my own purpose.

I have to admit, if I had done this test this time last year, the scores would have been a whole lot different. Since then, and since the inception of this blog, I have made a lot more positive changes.

To take the Energy Audit yourself by clicking here. Don’t forget to come back and share in the comments your score with some ideas on how you can improve!

April 29, 2013April 28, 2013

Happy Tummy, Happy Brain

It’s been over a year now that I’ve been wheat free and sugar free. During that year I cheated several times and lived to regret it. I now know that I just don’t operate well if I’m cheating on these foods. My stomach is a disaster and my head spins and I get headaches. I just can’t cheat.

The other factor that I’ve realized heavily influences how good I feel is how many greens I’m eating. This is a problem. I’ve never been good at eating my vegetables. Even fruit. I like a lot of fruit, but I will rarely reach for fruit if chips or cookies are an option. If fruit is served, I’ll for sure it eat and love it. I still haven’t figured out the mental barrier about fruit.

Smoothies, however, I don’t seem to have much problem with. Plop a few berries and a banana in a blender and that thing is down my hatch without a second thought.

For the last few months I’ve been tracking “Eat Veggies” and “Eat Fruit” on LiftApp. I started tracking it because some days I actually at no fruit or vegetables. Since I was a little girl I would get headaches if I didn’t have protein and so that has always been the focus of my meal planning and it’s not abnormal for me to forget to make veggies to accompany it. Since tracking my intake on Lift, I have noticed that I’m noticing more whether or not I’m eating my F&Vs, but it’s still not enough. I’m really tired of how sluggish I’m feeling.

Enter the 30 Day Smoothie Challenge.

I heard about it through GiddyYoYo on facebook and decided I needed to do it. It starts May 1 and continues for the rest of the month. When I first read about it my first thought was, “Jess, do you really need to add something else to your list of things to do?” My initial answer was ‘No’ but as I read on about how the purpose was to develop the habit, well, you know me these days. I’m all about the habit. I’m pretty desperate to eat better.

I already have convinced a few friends to join me but I wanted to let you guys know about it too. The way we eat totally affects our daily performance including mental clarity and energy. I believe this now! So go ahead and sign up to get your smoothie recipes and join the FB group, or check out my Pinboard of smoothies for ideas.

Leave a comment to let us know if you’re in or not!

April 28, 2013April 28, 2013

Recent Reads From April

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted articles I’ve enjoyed or found helpful, but I havent’ forgotten about the idea. I have zero clue whether anyone finds these helpful or enjoyable. Let me know what you think.

Running

27 Ways to Run Better Every Day by RunnersWorld

Productivity

4 Tips from the Most Productive Lifters
5 Simple Rituals To Help You Stay At Your Potential by FastCompany
38 Books that Every Blogger Needs to Read by CopyBlogger
Read This If You’re Trying To Build A New Habit by Weighty Matters

Health and Wellbeing

Dressing simply. I appreciate her perspective on not having to have a bazillion pairs of jeans etc.
Relationships are More Important Than Ambition at The Atlantic

General

How to Live Without Irony

April 27, 2013

eBook and Writing

It’s been a few weeks since my Easter Weekend Project and this past week I had some time to look over the book, make some suggested edits as per my brother’s recommendations. Willy took a quick look over it, gave me a few recommendations and the next step is to edit it for reals. I’m still debating whether I’ll let Willy edit it or not. Being edited is hard. I haven’t decided whether opening myself up to his criticism is better than someone else’s. He’s already read it now, so I guess he can already see it for what it is before being editing.

Both my husband and my brother agreed it’s something I can be proud of. This makes me smile.

Right now it’s a series of steps to help you dream big, decide on your bucket list goals/life goals and start making them happen — nothing particularly new for this blog except for all in one place. The working title is Reach Your Goals but that sounds pretty lame and self-help-y. I’m open to better suggestions.

“You’ve written a lot this year!” Willy pointed out. I hadn’t really thought about it, but once I did, I realized that yeah I have written a lot. As it stands, this ebook is roughly 10,000 words. Another one I’ve been working on for the last 8 months (as ideas come) is 20,000 words. The novel I wrote in November was roughly 50,000 words and none of this is including all of the blog posts I’ve written and personal journaling I’ve done. The best part is, my life doesn’t seem to be interrupted by all this writing.

I’m celebrating a little bit in my heart as I write this for having been able to so easily work toward this goal of writing regularly.

April 25, 2013

Laughter is good medicine

The other day I was watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix. I know, not exactly the best TV show for a lot of reasons (Barney being a huge dirtbag being one of them) but I realized that watching every episode of the first 6 seasons is partly why I stayed sane since September at work.

I realized I had a lot of internal stress for reasons I don’t exactly know. Even when I don’t feel stressed my body tells me I am by making me have stomach aches etc. It’s frustrating and confusing because I love what I do (or at least I think I do?). I can now identify things that were stressing me out which has instigated some changes at work that I’m happy about.

As I watched an episode of HIMYM and found myself laughing and laughing. It felt really good and really freeing to laugh despite people getting bombed and raped and bullied to death and battling my self telling myself that I suck (insight into the real internal dialogue that I battle).

Last night, I found myself reading buzzfeed over and over. 25 Photos You Need To Really Look At To Understand, for example, had my husband and laughing quite hard. I kept clicking and kept laughing. It was really nice.

As life gets more and more complex, as we hear about terror plots between Montreal and Toronto and about other things that make me want to stick my head in the sand, I need to remember just to find a way to laugh. Laughter is a wonderful stress reliever, spirit-lifter, and is linked with — you guessed it — better productivity.

Do you ever try to make yourself laugh when you’re stressed or upset? What’s your go-to TV show or movie? How do you get your laughter quotient in? Leave a comment to share the funny wealth!

April 23, 2013

A Week Like Last: Why routine and habit has become crucial to my functioning

I’m writing this from North Carolina and I’m very happy about that. Willy finished his final papers and exams at 5PM Friday evening. It was an intense two weeks of assignments and exams for him. I joked with my coworkers that he was hardly a whole human being anymore. His life was studying and writing, save sleep and a short time for meals. I had a busy week consolidating things at the end of the school year, having final meetings before we went on vacation and then switched gears to start working on a new project when I return.

Last week was a big reminder that I still need to grow in developing habits and routines in my schedule that are non-negotiable. Buying groceries is one of those things. There was much chaos last week and I’m confident we could have maintained a sense of normalcy if I had a structured time I did groceries (we didn’t have much in the fridge last week and were too busy to go get some), still making time for other things.

My ideal has become building a series of habits and routines that reduces the amount that I need to think and maximizes getting things done. “Things” being primarily the things I don’t like doing and don’t want to do and therefore don’t make proper time for: Like washing my floors and grocery shopping.

I can’t remember if I’ve posted about this before, but this isn’t the first time that I’ve felt like my life is a bit of a gongshow and I think to myself: I know how to fix this, I just have to do it.

Just doing it is half the trouble, right?

But this week is about chilling out, enjoying the sun, eating really cheap food here in America, and relaxing.