Mondays are Awesome!

Happy Monday, world!

You know, a lot of people I know think Mondays suck. I disagree; I think Mondays are awesome. You know why? Because every seven days, there's a new week - a chance for a fresh start. Mondays are full of possibility, opportunities, and chances to make life better...even if life is already pretty good. Cause there's always room for improvement, right? And I am always down for a new beginning or a new project.

"Whaaaat?" you may be thinking to yourself. "She's nuts. I have no time for new projects and Mondays are hard enough to just get through." I hear that one a lot.

No time.

Just have to get through the day.

What if you decided not to cooperate with the nasty Monday conveyor belt? I mean, think about it for a minute - what is is about Mondays that make them so daunting? The beginning of a work week? Five whole days until the weekend? What would happen if you put a big goofy smile on your face (even if it's fake at first) and went off to work or class or wherever? You might even make someone else smile...and imagine the ripple effect from there!

Right then - so last week I took all the stupid time-gobbling apps out of my devices in order to create more productive time. Bye, Papa Pear...don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, Farm Heroes. And seriously? Screw you, Key Word.

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you I didn't miss them, or didn't have to fight off strong compulsions to put them back on, cause I totally did. BUT you know what I did instead? I got some stuff done! I read a book! I slept just a little more each night! And all those things are pretty cool, except at the beginning of the week my inner toddler was having a giant tantrum because all her favorite toys were gone, and losing the toys seemed like punishment for wasting so much time...and so I had to get an attitude adjustment from my very wise and fabulous nutrition coach Georgie Fear, who said "that sounds like a really positive thing you're doing for yourself!"

Wait, what? A positive thing I'm doing for myself? Not a punishment for being a shitty time manager?

Whoa.

 Which made me think, what else could I apply that thinking to? Oh hey, I know -- just about

everything!

Have a great Monday and stay tuned for my book review!

Transition Space and Yoga

It's week 4 of being a business owner. It's a strange place to be because before I left the big gym, I was hell bent on getting out on Friday afternoon and then TAKING OVER THE WORLD on Monday morning...and that hasn't happened. And in fact, what has happened instead is way more awesome. What happened instead was (wait for it)

Space.

Hours of empty space. Sure, I still have clients to train, but fewer of them. I still have a family to look after. I still have a house full of tasks that are behind and musical instruments that need playing and books that need reading and creative projects that shout at me for attention...but for the moment at least I am choosing to ignore the chores and focus on my relationships. Instead of staying busy with busywork, I am taking full advantage of the opportunity to sleep. To focus on myself and get my shit sorted. To do yoga. And to play awful addictive video games.

 And I tell ya, I feel saner and more connected than I have in years. Maybe EVER. I have realized that I kept insanely busy and put the needs of my children (which is necessary for the first few years I admit) and my work and the laundry and the internet before my own in order to avoid some of the harder work that needs to happen inside my brain case. I know I'm not alone in that respect...and I also know that although I'm off to a good start here, I'm still doing an awful lot of AVOIDING and I could be more effective with my time.

 And if the children didn't come downstairs naked every morning complaining of no clean clothes our mornings would be a lot more harmonious.

To that end, I am removing the silly apps that take up too much time from my iPad and my phone. Right now. I challenge you to do the same: top three goofy things that take up too much time?  For me, they are

Key Word

Farm Heroes

Papa Pear

 Damn you, King Entertainment! You are singlehandedly turning my brain into mush. Well, no more. Someone hold my hand here....

Here we go...

Oh man, this is harder than I thought. Damn.

 Okay, I did it!! Woohoo! There are no longer goofy time-gobbling apps on my electronic devices. What an awesome way to start a Monday morning!

Now I can go back to reading books.

Right then, to my favorite subject: exercise!! It's actually not my favorite subject right now 'cause I'm heavier and weaker than I've been in a long time. The one saving grace that has helped me through this fitness rut is yoga, and I think for a while there that was the missing link. I have been going to a class twice a week lately which has been awesome, but this week I'm going to give daily yoga practice a shot. And there's plenty of time for it now that the goofy apps are gone!

Big Bad Gluten...Really?

 It's official - Gray Area Fitness is two weeks old!! Woohoo! And, Happy Shamrock Day!

 Ok, kids, gather around and I'll tell you a story. A few weeks ago I was happily shopping through Costco ('cause there isn't any other way to shop through Costco) and I noticed something suspicious. Product packaging has changed. Remember when EVERYTHING used to say 'low fat' on it, to the point where people would buy up crazy quantities of Skittles, Twizzlers, Snackwells cookies, white pasta, and 'fat-free dairy-like dessert food' so that they could go home and eat around their cravings all night? And it wouldn't matter because everything they ate was low-fat or fat-free? Never mind the fact that they were eating their weight in petroleum by-products and drywall dust...

The fact is, and we are starting to get it, that fat is not evil. Fat is actually good for you, in the right proportions and the right varieties. The problem with fat is that gram for gram, it has a little over twice as many calories as its other two macronutrient counterparts (namely, protein and carbohydrates) so it's really easy to get too much of it. Because fat is DEELICIOUS.

mmmm...fat....

But I digress. There is a new villian out there, folks. Another totally evil compound in our food that will make you fat and miserable and sluggish and impotent and give your children nightmares and make your dog poop on the carpet for all eternity. Its name is GLUTEN.

 Everything that's gluten-free is labeled. "Eat this, it's GLUTEN-FREE!" crows the packaging. THIS is the product that will break the shackles of ill health!!

I was driving my giant shopping cart down the aisles of Costco growing increasingly aware of this new phenomenon, and becoming increasingly irked by the patronizing nature of it all, when I rounded a corner and drove by a lady behind a sample table. She smiled at me and said, "Try some coconut! It's GLUTEN-FREE!"

I'm not kidding. This happened. And it was the last straw. I wanted to shout at her, "Of course it's freaking gluten-free, it's COCONUT!" but I didn't because I am a nice person (on the outside, heh heh) and I can't yell at people who are just doing what they're told. So instead, and in hopes that the doofus who came up with the idea to try and sell coconut based on it's virtous gluten-free-ness reads this one day, let's dig into this, shall we?

What is gluten? Wiki says:

Gluten (from Latin gluten, "glue") is a protein composite found in foods processed from wheat and related grain species, including barley and rye.

Right then. So can we all agree that products that are not grain-based are probably gluten-free? (As a side note, if the food is heavily processed then it wouldn't hurt to read the label, but if it's that heavily processed then you probably shouldn't eat it anyway). BUT, there is a small portion of the population who really do need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they are putting in their mouths is really truly gluten-free, and those are the people with celiac disease, an auto-immune condition that affects about 1% of the population. Another growing chunk of our population figures that they are gluten-intolerant. This is true for some...but most of them are simply figuring out that they feel better with less starch in their bodies.

Here's a good rule of thumb for grocery shopping: if it has no nutrition label, it's good for you (and gluten-free! Huzzah!). Things like vegetables, fruit, legumes, eggs, meat, and nuts. If it has a nutrition label, check the ingredients. Are there more than 5 ingredients total? Leave it on the shelf. You'll feel better, you'll be healthier, and hey, you'll save a few bucks!

That's the end of my rant for today! Next time it might be fun to talk about exercise - stay tuned!