Saturday, January 13, 2018

Positive Choices

Well it's been over a year since I pulled up a blank page and shared my thoughts with you. I've missed taking the time to put my thoughts to the page, even if it's only for my own benefit. We are still deep into our remodeling project; I sit here with exposed rebuilt walls, new windows, insulation and plastic vapor barrier on the walls of my living room, but we are waiting for the new roof and a bit of wiring before we start the process of sheet rock and plaster. The goal is the addition and new truss/roof this summer and then we can work towards wrapping this up. When you do the work yourselves in the evenings and on weekends, it is a slow process. But back to why I decided to be here in the early hours of the morning.

A couple of years ago (its hard to belive it has been that long already) I began a small accountability group that I called Positive Choices. I got a few snickers and jabs over the name because it was very close to a hypnosis recovery program in our area call Positive Changes. But all in all, they are very much the same, the people that check into that program are tired of heading down the same path that they have been traveling and they want to make a change in who they are as a person. With our little group, we were trying to do the same, we wanted to make better choices for our health and weight.

Needless to say, as the year moved along, schedules got overwhelmed and other commitments took over our meeting together, and our focus shifted back to the pressures life. But as I look at that year, don't regret trying to have our little group and have found myself chewing on the idea of trying again. A couple of the ladies had goals based on vacation plans and one was an upcoming wedding that has now passed, but the need to take care of ourselves is still there.

For me, continued health issues caused me to return to the naturopath and begin even more closely watching my food intake. Grant it, I struggled desperately through the holidays, but we had a great Thanksgiving with an entire meal that fit my food plan and I did pretty well on Christmas, aside for the random tray of cookies that showed up around my office.

I've had people ask me if I had made my resolutions for the year, and for me, that process is something I don't participate in. I have found that annual goal setting and failure, becomes too much of a step backward and I find myself beating myself up over it when I don't succeed. I just have to face each day as a choice,  good or bad, it is just a choice. So the overall plan is more good days than bad, to stay in contact with my naturopath, and keep playing with my food. It's a journey for me, not a goal to be achieved, just a life to be lived. The trick is to live and make peace with the food that is best for me.

Throughout the craziness of the holidays, I managed to keep my weight in check, but for some reason right now everything seems to leave me overly stressed, overwhelmed and poor food choices have been my go to. So in the past couple of days. I've spent some time doing a bit of soul searching and looking at what I need to do to put myself in a better place, both in my head and my eating habits.

I do have to confess that I am a Pinterest junkie, I have multiple boards and a few thousand pins for everything from recipes to DIY projects for the house (feel free to look me up and see for yourself). But in those times when I'm brain dead scrolling through pages of stuff on the Internet, I look at what's new on Pinterest that is outside my normal search group, and I recently found the term Hygge. The term was accompanied with pictures of glowing candles, warm socks and steaming hot beverages. So I decided to browse further.

If you haven't come across this term yet, Hygge [hoo ga] is a Danish term for the core of thier lifestyle (there is no direct translation or term for it in the English language). They live a life that revolves around a focus of well-being, to be cozy, to live in the moment, and dozens of other examples when you look up this term. So, as I've been doing my soul searching, embracing this attitude holds a lot of merit. 

Oddly enough, my best times for sitting here pouring out my thoughts has been in the wee hours of the morning, and today is no different. It's a little after 3am, I have two candles lit, a cup of green tea and a warm blanket (thanks to a generous gift card received at Christmas, I now own a very cozy Pendleton wool blanket) wrapped around my legs, and I am enjoying a little Hygge time. 

I want to encourage you to take a little time and research the term and find little ways to Hygge your own way. I intend to take more deep breaths, to enjoy more, and hopefully find more time to be here, sharing my thoughts and recipes with you.


Another treasure I picked up recently was new coffee mug at one of my favorite coffee houses and the saying on the cups fits the Hygge attitude. I'm not drinking coffee right now, but it works for a good cup of tea in the middle of the night too.


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