1/52 - The Project Begins, plus: Yoga beats up Sarah!

So I finally got the self portrait done for week one of my 52-Week Self-Portrait Project. Since I've been madly cleaning my house the past few days I decided to kinda do a housecleaning photo, but in style. Haha. I couldn't quite decide on the photo's, so I did two of them. Here they are: My Sexy Housewife Cleaning in Style photo's! And no, I do not clean the house like this for real. I clean the house in sweats and a t-shirt mainly. But this was fun.  (And I kept thinking that if someone came to the door and I had to run answer it, they'd be mighty surprised to see someone done up like this at 8:45am... haha. Especially with the cleaning gloves on.  Totally completes the outfit, don't ya think?)

As for my day so far... I got up early today, which is a huge struggle for me. I am seriously NOT a morning person. But I got up right after Ryan left for work, so around 6:10am (yeah, I know, ugh) and had breakfast, watered plants, and then did my beginner yoga video. I haven't done my yoga since before Christmas... I used to do it with my awesome sister-in-law Beth, but then they up and moved to England and are having a grand 'ol time, and I'm stuck here in Alberta with no yoga partner. So I haven't yoga'd (as if that's even a word) in months and months... and even though I was taking modern dance the semester after Christmas, sitting around these past two summer months have totally made me lose any gains I had made in fitness by taking that class. So let me just say, that yoga video whomped my butt! Yikes. Oww. Uhhh. *groan* I am so out of shape that a basic beginners yoga video totally owned me. I've really got to get back at it. So I am going to try to get up in the morning with Ryan and eat breakfast and do yoga before continuing my day. And hopefully someday soon it won't hurt so much during and after, and I hope to touch my toes again soon too... I've just got to somehow keep at it. Which can be hard when it's so dang tiring, and then it's discouraging... to see how far I've slipped back again. But I won't ever get fit if I don't do something about, so for now it's yoga, and walking (hopefully Ryan's ankle heals up soon so I have a walking partner) and the occasional bike ride, and I'll eventually move up to the extra yoga and the crazy lower-body workout that are also on my video.

In other news, my house is almost really clean. Except for the spare room. Don't even mention the spare room to me. But everything else is awesome :) I've dusted, vacuumed, wiped, washed, and tidied, and I love having all this space! I can actually sit in my couch! So yeah, been doing good on that, and the eating front is still going quite well, though I did have a bit of ice cream (Jack's softserve, so can you blame me) with Ryan when we went out on Monday... it had been a warm day, I'd gotten a fair amount done. It was SO yummy!! And on Monday we went back to Beerhunters, a pub here in town, for supper... we'd been once before a while ago, and thought we remembered it being really good. And we weren't disappointed. Awesome food. It's a pub, so we'd avoid it later in the evening, if there were any games on, etc... and the service is lackluster, but the food is totally good. So yeah, I got a break from cooking, but other than that I've been good and have been making meals at home too. Look at me go! Hahaha... :D Anyhow, that's enough for now.

How's everyone's summer going? Any big plans for Canada Day? We're just gonna be chill'n and playing board games. Should be good. Have a great day everyone!!

Checking In - It's Been A Week

OK, so here I am to account for my week. Did I make those changes? How'd I do so far?

First, the Health and Fitness.
I found a site called LoseIt.com and I joined and have been keeping track of everything I eat and watching my calories, and adding any exercise I've done (not much). Because of that I've been making way better food choices and besides half a mini cupcake at the wedding I've avoided my downfall: the fatty, sugary baked goods. I've been drinking more water, haven't had my usual sweets and sugary drinks, and have been eating more fruits and veggies... still not enough, but an improvement. It's been good, though man occasionally I really wanted chocolate or cake or something. And I've been a bit tired, since my body was used to running on sugar, but I'm sure in a few more days it'll sort itself out, and be the happier for it. I was planning on getting in more exercise, but then Ryan sprained his ankle, and we haven't got out for our planned walks, and he was home for a couple of days, so we mainly hung out.

On a side note, we went and saw Green Lantern and loved it! Out of all the comicbook movies we've seen this year (Thor, X-men, and Green Lantern) it was hard to choose a favourite since we liked them all, but we think Thor's at the bottom, and we feel that X-Men and Green Lantern are so different... in part because X-Men is a return to familiar characters (though their earlier renditions, it's still Xavier and Magneto and Mystique, etc...) and a familiar Universe, and it was really well done, but we might have liked it in part because of the familiarity, and to get more backstory, while Green Lantern was fresh, and more fun. We laughed a lot. But it also had decent character motivation and depth enough to understand why the characters did what they did, for the most part. X-Men has always shone in that regard, and even more now... you totally understand Xavier and Magneto's story, as well as Mystique's, and so many others, and why they do what they do and believe what they believe. But enough about movies... for now.

But yeah, so I'm doing OK there, and am hoping to have lost a fair amount of this extra unhealthy weight by the end of this year, and will have hopefully taken advantage of the fitness facilities at school and gotten in shape too.

Spiritual Life... ummm... no real improvement in this area this week. Though I read a great couple of blog posts recently on trusting God: one by my awesome sister-in-law here on how Gratitude is the Essence of Trust, and one here called "Daddy Save Me". They got me thinking. And so I did pray a smidge, asking that I get a fuller revelation myself about this kinda thing. We didn't make it to church, and I can't even blame it on staying up late partying at my cousins wedding the night before since we left kinda early... we just didn't really try to get there. Oooops. And my Bible still hasn't been out. Though I'm slowly trying to read Designer Genes, by Ken Harrington, and it's got lots of verses in it. Ha.

Procrastinating and Housework. Well, we did get some of the house clean over this past week, but this morning I procrastinated and wasted time online, and so now I have a lot to do this afternoon. I need to clean my bathroom, wash a few dishes, wipe the kitchen counters, do some laundry, and tidy the office up. Tomorrow is vacuuming. Tonight Ryan is going to help me clean the TV room. We only have a couple more days to get this place clean before Ryan's mom and his grandparents come for a visit and we want the house to be clean. Then we really want to find a way to keep it clean, which will involve breaking off many bad habits.

Relationships With Others. Well... I did have a good visit with my Aunt Shannon at the wedding, and did visit with a few other people. I also hid behind my camera a fair amount. We've had Colevin and Ebony, Ryan's younger brother and his wife, over for games the past couple nights, since it's a totally affordable entertainment for all of us, and we need to watch spending.

Oh, that's something else I should be watching... money. Haha. Though the eating out less and less sugar and crap foods will certainly help in that area. Hmmm... maybe gonna have to think about adding some sort of savings goal or something, but for now, I think I've got enough stuff on my plate.

We're hoping to have a games night on Friday, since the house should be all clean, and we've got the time, and the games. If you don't really know us, we're board game fanatics. All started with a game store in Victoria, BC called Interactivity. It's on Fort St. near the Bay Centre and it's owned by a guy named Jack, and he's amazing and knows so much about board games (and we're talking Euro-board games here, not Monopoly and things like that) and he's part of a gamer group and so they play all these games, and he knows what is playing well, and what isn't, etc. And it's his passion. And he got us hooked on these Euro-board games. I'm gonna have to do a post on the games we have and stuff at one point. They are so good. But yeah, board games. And a games night. So I might be social!

So all in all I did enact some changes, and in some places I'm still in a rut, but for a first week I guess it's a start. Baby steps are still steps. And next week I hope to report even better things! And tomorrow I'm also hoping to start my 52Project, where I post a self-portrait (a photo I took of myself, either from arms length, or using a timer, or a remote, and having conceived of the concept and done the post processing myself as well) every week for a year. And it has to have been done that week. Looking forward to that project too. I need to get back into actively doing creative things, like writing (even just this blog) and my photography, and maybe even more painting and sketching and things too... since it's such a part of me, and will hopefully help keep me sane when I start up school again.

And just to finish things off, here's the Queen, meeting and greeting a whole bunch of troop horses. <3 Love :) The photo is from here.

OK, Time For Some Change!

So maybe it's a little late in the year for resolutions and all that jazz. Who cares?! I am, as of now, gonna try to make some changes. Changes in habits, changes in health, changes in life. Time to step it up! My life is just flying by and I'm wasting so much of it just sitting around doing nothing. Well, nothing important; nothing exciting; nothing good for me.

So here's some of the things that need to change:

Fitness and Health
I need to get in shape. Ryan and I have a passion for the outdoors; for hiking and scrambling, camping, climbing, backpacking, and I love to ride, and I also love to dance. But right now we can't enjoy much of that since we're both overweight and out-of-shape. I am at least 40lbs over my ideal weight. That's the weight of a pack for a decent length backpack trip! If I lost that, backpacking would be so much easier! And I'd have more energy for things, and just be more comfortable, healthier, and happier. I want to be able to run around the house playing tag with my kitty-cat Janey who loves that game, and not be out of breath after running from the living room to the TV room and back. Yeesh! Plus I just don't eat healthy. I love my sweets, baked goods, and cheesy breads too much, and I avoid my fruits and veggies. I don't want adult-onset diabetes or other health problems when I'm older. I've got to start being more healthy.

So the challenge is to eat far less sweets and far more fruit and veggies. To get some form of exercise every day, whether it be my yoga video, a walk, a bike ride... anything. To not spend so much time in front of the computer or watching movies.

Spiritual Life
So here, I gotta admit, I've been sucking. Never been good about reading the Bible, praying regularly, or doing devotions. Only thing I do do is play worship music or listen to Christian music and Shine.fm, on a fairly daily basis. Ryan and I have even been really bad about getting to church, being apart of the Body, making connections, tithing, etc... This is not good. This is supposed to be the most important part of my life, my relationship with God, and here I am slacking big-time. No wonder I have less joy in my life. No wonder I struggle with small things more and more.

So I am really going to try to make more of an effort to get to church and more of an effort to get into the Word and be praying as well. I have got to learn to hear from Him. And I have got to start dealing with all the crap (areas of unforgiveness, offense, past hurts and woundings, and anything else bogging me down and helping keep the wall up between me and others, including God.)

Procrastinating and House Work
Anyone who has known me for a while knows I can be quite the procrastinator. And I procrastinate the worst with house chores. Right now I'm not in any classes, and I only work part-time, so I should have lots of time to keep thins house clean. Ryan works long hours in a hard job, and he does it to provide for us... he's putting me through school , putting his dreams on hold while I pursue mine... and so the least I can do is make it so that he comes home to a clean house.

Mess is tiring. It really is. You look around, see mess, and it's draining. It also makes it harder to do things, like have supper ready, etc, when the kitchen is a mess. I really need to step up, and make a more concerted effort to keep the house clean, because I have the time, and it can be a way I show my love and appreciation to my husband for all the hard work he does. Plus it would just be nicer for me too. A clean house is nice.

We have just developed such lazy bad habits about the house. Clean clothes pile up everywhere because I don't have a good habit of folding them as they come out of the dryer and then putting them away. Dishes pile up because we have a habit of sitting in the TV room and watching a movie or a show while we eat, and so we don't do the dishes right away. That and we don't have that face-to-face time during meals to visit either. But the table is usually cluttered, and it's comfier on the couch, so off we go.

I plan to try to make a concerted effort to do at least one area of the house a day to ensure that the house stays cleaner, and to get better about folding clean laundry and doing dishes. That's the plan. Just gotta stick with it.

Relationships With Others
I'm an introvert. And, as mentioned in the spiritual life section, I also have some issues (ha, don't we all?)... one of my biggest issues is Trust, the next is that overwhelming feeling of loneliness even in a group and the feeling of not belonging. I'm a very walled-off person. This is bad. I don't let people get too close generally, and I don't like people to see the real me, to the point where some times I'm not sure who is the real me. Where does the posturing, the hiding, the masks and persona's end, and I truly begin?

That all makes is rather hard to have real relationships with other people. And we need real relationships. You need people to walk with, to talk with, to be held accountable by... We need mentors; we need, as women, women friends, and as couples, couple friends, and so on... We need relationships in which we are able to be real. And love the real person, ourselves, and our friends. Thank goodness we have God's love and grace to extend to ourselves and others. And we need to practice that extension of love and grace, to everyone. Who better to practice it on then friends, and on ourselves?

So I need to stop hiding in my basement, pretending Facebook makes the cut as far as having relationships go. I need to learn to be a friend. I need to learn to be real, and trust others... trust that the real me isn't that bad. That's it's safe to be me. And that it's safe to get to know others. I need to be open to connections. Open to going for coffee, or going for a walk with someone. And invite people over (which, if I stick to my house-chore goals, will be easier to accomplish, since right now there's no where for anyone to sit)... Hmmm... revelation?: Maybe part of my messy-house thing is a hiding thing, since then I have an excuse not to have people over??

Finale

So, that's the big areas of my life I am hoping to progress in. Time for some re-conditioning, some re-training, some old-habit breaking and new-habit making! And I'm going to try to blog about how this stuff is going, and other things that pop into my head or heart, like things I've read that I really liked or that were eye-opening, healthy (and occasionally not so healthy, since everyone needs a treat once in a while) recipes, and so on and so forth. And I'll hopefully add some photo's occasionally, like if we take a trip, or if the cats are being cute, or something. I may try to do a once-a-week self-portrait project too.

So, off to try to clean a portion of the house and get some exercise and do a devotion or something! But before I go: What are some things you are wanting to make a change in, and how do you plan on accomplishing this change? God bless and take care!

*** None of the images used in this post belong to me. The Running Rhino can be found here (and by the way, I would love that shirt, hint hint, haha), the Potter and Clay picture was likely from CrossDaily.com, or from a newsletter who got the image from there, etc. The house-cleaning cartoon is from here. And the picture re: Relationships with Others is a picture from Cirque Du Soleil's show Varekai, off their site.