showing up. again.

We were in Chicago this past weekend for a funeral. The world lost one of the good ones. Pete was six years younger than I am, but I don't know anyone who crammed more joy and living into those way-too-short 53 years. As happens when faced with mortality, it caused some reflection on my part.

I completed a half-marathon one month ago (recap here), and today I started Week 1, Day 1 of Couch-to-5K (C25K). While my race time was a PR, I feel I kinda half-assed the training. I did the usual relax-for-a-few-days after the race, and then started right back in with the "running" (walking). Since I'm not training for a race right now, though, things have been a bit casual. Hence the start of a new regimen. And I gotta tell you, today's workout was tough. Not natural childbirth tough, but almost as sweaty.

I haven't been feeling the best lately, not because I'm sick or anything, but because I don't think I've been taking very good care of me. So back to the personal reflection I mentioned in the first paragraph. I figured out what I needed to feel my best, and I actually wrote them down. And as part of the Showing Up in the title, here they are:

health goals (if you look by the "L" in goals, you'll see a big old sweat drop from my workout)

These are all pretty self-explanatory, with maybe the exception of meditation. As someone who is familiar on a first-name basis with anxiety and depression, I feel the healthiest when I meditate, if only for 5-10 minutes. I do it in my sanctuary, as Dwight calls it, which is actually Alex's old bedroom. I took down the dinosaur posters, painted it a deep brown, took out the bed, got a couch, filled the bookshelves with knitting and calligraphy books, moved a desk in, and have all my treasures, not the least of which are pictures of my family. If I'm in there, incense is burning, and I really feel a sense of ease when I enter that room. Meditation, along with #4, will help my mental state.

I know I've talked about water intake before. I don't know how much I have to talk about it to actually consume enough - I think this might be it!

C25K will help with my 10,000 steps. I was so excited when the kids gave me my Jawbone for Mother's Day, but it is not all that easy to get 10,000 steps in each day. For example, it's 7 pm now, and I have 7,802 steps in. I worked out, went to work (which is not a sitting down job), worked in the garden when I got home, and I still need 2200 steps. If you think you're getting all those steps in, unless you're walking or running about five miles, I bet you're not.

#6: eat real food. You know those five pounds of winter weight? Still here. And I don't care about the weight per se, you are so much more than a number on the scale, yada yada yada. I just don't feel good. I feel better when I weigh a bit less, and it certainly is easier to run then. While Emily did really well on the Whole30, I don't want to go to that extreme. I'm going to cut down on processed food. If I want cookies, I can have them, but only if I make them myself out of real ingredients. Now if only those crackers that I bough at Costco yesterday will stop calling to me from the pantry.

This is part two of the New and Improved Cathy, things to do just for me:

I know there are more, but I'm keeping this on the bulletin board by my desk and will add to them as time goes on. Except for #2 (which I'd like to have done by their anniversary in August), the items are not ones I can really check off. They are just ongoing projects that I love to do and usually end up on Facebook instead of doing them.

Here's to a healthy life!