Does this sound familiar?

I should exercise more. I’m not feeling well, so I should rest. I should clean the house. I should cook a good dinner for the family. I should eat better. I should eat less. I should lose a little weight. I should stop procrastinating. I should meditate. I should connect more with my friends. I should take some time for myself. I should spend more time with my family. I should work harder, earn more, save money, take more time off, spend less, buy more, do more for my kids, teach them to be self-sufficient. I should have more energy, be well-rested, watch less TV, read more, be more self-aware, be less irritable.

I should be perfect. I should stop judging myself for not being perfect. I should I should I should I should.

Do your shoulds drive your life? Read the rest of this entry »

There are a number of things that can work against having a healthy lifestyle, especially as a woman. It takes 21 days to create a new habit. How many of the following things could you give up for 21 days?
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Let me say right up front that I’m sort of horrible with deadlines. I’m a procrastinator. Well, I create in my head my idea of the perfect atmosphere in which to do a task, and I wait and wait and wait for that perfect time and then that perfect ideal never happens. Huh! On top of that I take my commitments very seriously, which seems at odds with my mad time-management skilz, but there you go. It all leads to a lot of sleepless nights. I leave things to the last minute and then drive myself crazy worrying at night when I’m supposed to be sleeping, at a time when there’s nothing I can do about it.

And now we know how stress is born: created out of thin air! I’m magic! Yay me! Read the rest of this entry »

Us Moms have full days, no question. So where in those busy days are we supposed to find the time to exercise?

Recently I’ve been noticing more and more Moms blogging about when they are finding that all-important time for themselves.

Sarah has been getting up at 5 a.m. to use her elliptical. Yikes, that’s early, but she promises it has given her more energy for the rest of the day.

One of my favorite fellow runners, Nat, is always running (and blogging it here). Her and I are training for a marathon together in October. We’re both undecided as to if we’ll be doing the half or the whole thing.

Andrew, (though not a woman, but definitely a parent) finds time sandwiched between his daughter’s first bottle and his work day.

Me?

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I have problems with anger.

I mean, historically I have reacted to anger in other people. It sort of scared me. When someone around me was angry I thought it was about me, and it made me feel horrible. What did I do? Could I undo it somehow? Pleasepleaseplease?

And, ironically, anger in other people made me angry.

We all feel anger. But what can we do about it? Strong emotions like anger aren’t exactly welcome in most circles. People just want it to go away.

So when I say “I have problems with anger” I really mean “We as a society have problems with anger.”

But I have a solution for this. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I ran the marathon relay I’ve been training for. You can catch the recap here.

Before the race, I was really nervous. Not just because I had only run 8K twice before, but I wanted to get a good time and so I set one goal for myself: to run my entire course without stopping to walk.

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Not long ago I wrote about how toddlers are a great example for us because they’re constantly living in the present. I meant it when I wrote it and I still believe that we’re more at peace when we’re attending to what’s right in front of us, but…

I gotta tell you, I struggle with this.

I mean, what does it mean exactly anyway? And how do we apply the whole “being in the moment” thing when there’s laundry to fold and homework to check and toys to pick up and a deadline to meet and what am I going to make for dinner anyway and OMG did the cat throw up again? Read the rest of this entry »

I know first hand how hard it is to stick to a diet, to exercise regularly, to find the motivation to keep going even when you don’t want to. But what happens when you throw a house guest into the mix?

This past weekend was certainly a test. An old friend of mine stayed overnight Saturday and we had a traditional girl’s night. Before I started training for the marathon relay, I would have thrown all discipline out the window and had a weekend of fattening foods and sitting around. The race is a week away and there was no way I was going to do that. Or was I?

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