A 40 Day Challenge

Scribing today is a little delayed. My phone overheated by the pool.

The pool is open, and the sun is out!

As I discover what my miracle morning routine is, I've decided to include some time in the sun.

Right now, since I drive late nights, I get to sleep around 2 AM.  Affirming to myself that I can get fully restful sleep in just 6 hours, I set my alarm for 8 AM to get my miracle morning underway.

My affirmations might be working a little too well because I woke up a full half hour EARLY this morning excited to get to my routine.

Trim the beard, shave, a splash of cold water on the face, teeth brushed, and tongue scraped, I get to the first new habit just before 8.  Because I have the time, I've committed to 20 minutes of meditation for my morning silence.

Water, aminos, then silence.

Because I have yet to develop my own affirmations, I've defaulted to Yule Brenner's "I see pride" affirmation from the classic John Candy movie Cool Runnings.  That, and I look myself in the eye (in the mirror) and tell myself, "I love you."

Silly?  It might feel that way right now, but these three words repeated daily are going to pay dividends like you would not believe.

Get a shake ready, dressed in workout attire, water bottle, swim shorts, towel, and workout DVD to head to the fitness center and make a fool of myself working out with Shaun T.

25 minutes and a cool down later and I head to rinse off and change for the pool as it opens. A few laps in the pool. Set up in the sun, I "read" Miracle Morning and drink my green shake.

Go to scribe and... phone overheats.

Tomorrow, the phone stays out of direct sunlight.

I realized this morning that if I push the yoga challenge I started last night to 40 days, the last day will be on my birthday!

Guess who is doing a 40 day yoga challenge!  This yogi!

I took my first class from Lauren last night, and this afternoon I get to take Marie's class for day two!

Don't Break the Chain

I first heard about "don't break the chain" in an article referencing Jerry Seinfeld's use of the method.  With a little investigation I found that he hadn't originated the practice, but adopted it as his own.

The idea is, when starting a new habit, or trying to be more regular with a habit you are already developing, cross off the days on a calendar as you complete your intended routine, and try to string together as many days as possible without breaking the chain, or missing a day.  The other, imperative part is to make sure that if you do miss a day, you only miss that one day before starting a new chain.

How long can you keep the chain going? Can you beat your previous best?  Focusing on your achievements in keeping the chain going rather than the times you miss your routine, is immeasurably helpful in developing and maintaining the correct mindset.

Mindset is everything.

I broke my chain.  Like, really broke it.  As evidenced by the couple weeks of missing blog posts from my miracle morning routine.

From now on I am starting an accountability chain with my miracle morning.  This is the way I want to start my day every day!

Thank you for reading.

Namaste

Love Yourself

One person in this universe was always meant to love you, no matter what.

You.

Loving other people is simple in comparison.  You know your every flaw, every mistake, every thought, every action.  No love is more difficult or more rewarding than loving yourself.

If you love yourself, if you're made of love, if you are love, only then are you able to love others wholly and completely.

Loving one another is important, certainly.  I feel like this gets covered pretty well in our culture.  From a young age, this is the mantra taught to many of us: Love one another.

When I say my affirmations with myself in the mirror every morning, after I've quoted the character Yul Brenner's "I see pride" affirmation from Cool Runnings, the very last words I leave myself with are: "I love you."

If you want to change the world, change yourself.

If you want to love the world, love yourself.

Namaste

Own Your Life

This life isn't leased. So, you can't get a new one. This life is yours—not borrowed, let, or loosed. You own your life, so own up to it!

This statement isn't meant to be daunting. That's the wrong perspective. Realizing that you own your life is EMPOWERING! If that scares you, it should! Have courage!

Today is the only today you will ever get. And while tomorrow will be a completely different today, the choices you make in every moment plot the course for every day that follows.

Live today.
Choose your tomorrow.
Own your life.

Namaste

7000 Miles

I've now put 7,000 miles on the LOV Tank.  That's the name I've settled on for the minivan, for those of you clamoring that vehicles need names.  Why LOV Tank?  This vehicle is on a mission, and not just to shuttle Marylanders around Charm City.  I'm taking superfood, whole food nutrition to the people!

I'm off to put some more mission hours.  The skies have cleared, the sun is out, and the city awaits.

Namaste

Never Perfect

Perfect is an ideal which doesn't exist in this world, and that's okay. In fact, it is freeing to consider that perfection doesn't exist.

"Better" exists. I can always do better. I can always be better.

I can eat better, sleep better, live better.

I can't eat perfect. There is no such thing!

I can't sleep perfect. It doesn't exist!

I can't live perfectly, and neither can you!

#notperfect #neverperfect

So, why are you waiting for perfection?!

Why are you comparing yourself to a perfect ideal?!

I meet so many people that are paralyzed by the prospect of perfect that they refuse to act, myself included.

Looking for the perfect workout? Stop looking and start working out—though I highly recommend Bikram yoga, if you haven't tried it.

Looking for the perfect diet? Any incremental improvement is going to change your life—Here is your new diet plan: (1) Give up something unhealthy, (2) add something healthy, (3) feel better, (4) repeat ad infinitum.  Is that a perfect diet plan?  No, but it is better than what you're eating now.

I can't tell you where this came from, but I've heard it said many times, and it is hard to argue with: "You have to be bad before you're good, good before you're great. great before you're outstanding." And, nowhere in there does it say anything about perfect.

I'm not a good blogger. ...yet!

If I had to wait to write the perfect blog post before I started blogging, this blog wouldn't exist. I have to wrestle with that every time I post and put myself out there, because there is still a part of me that wants to be a perfectionist.

I'm good at Bikram yoga.  I'm not great, or outstanding, but I'm working towards it with every posture I fall out of, every pose I hold a half second longer, every hair's breadth deeper I get, I am getting better!

My growth stems from taking that part of me that wants to be perfect, and transforming it into a force that drives me to be better, but allows me to be bad at something.

Babies are bad walkers. They are completely awful at walking. True story.

I can't imagine that there is a baby that has ever been born that has waited to take the perfect step before trying to walk. They fail so hard, and spectacularly so.

Grant me the courage to fail like a baby learning to walk!

If you were waiting for the perfect time to start something, to achieve something, to do something... I'll tell you right now, the time will never be perfect. Start now. Do it now.

Be bad.

Strive for better.

Never perfect.

Namaste

Routine Maintenance

In order to get out the door this morning, I had to cut my Miracle Morning short.  It was my own fault, and I got everything in except for the scribing (this blog), but it has taken me half the day to get back to it.

As a former expert procrastinator, I have to have a constant vigil on my routines.  Allowing myself to slack on a day is a slippery slope for me.  I know this about myself.  There is always a danger, especially when developing a brand new routine or habit, of walking away if you fall off the horse instead of getting right back up on it.

Don't fall off the horse.  It is important to be impeccable with your word, something which I strive to maintain in my life.  It is doubly important when it is your word to yourself.

Maintain your routines like you would your most valued possessions.  A small action repeated daily will have massive effects on your life.

Eat cookies daily?  I don't have to spell out the effect.
Drink a green shake every morning?  Vitality like you've never seen.

Why do I spell out the effects of the green shake and not the cookie?  Because we all know somebody who "eats cookies daily" or who has similarly detrimental routines and habits, but not everybody sees the people who are getting their greens in.  As a hint, it is a majority of the healthy and vital people you run into on a regular basis.

Routine maintenance, maintenance that happens in cycles, be it daily, weekly, yearly.  Cycles are important when it comes to routines.

"I'm going to drink a green shake every day for the rest of my life!"

Blech!  No!  Who would possibly commit to that?!  I would LIKE to drink a green shake every day for the rest of my life, just because I know what that will do for my health and well being, but I can't possibly have integrity in that statement because there are too many variables that could prevent me from having a green shake one day in my foreseeable lifetime.  Just like that, word broken.

"I'm committing to ninety days of drinking a green shake every morning!"

That you can see yourself doing—especially if you like how your shake tastes.  It doesn't have to be ninety, it could be thirty, it could be an intensive three shakes a day for ten days.  It doesn't matter.  What matters is that you commit, you are impeccable with your word to yourself, and that you have an achievable and measurable goal.

Then, at the end of ninety days, thirty days, ten days, you reflect, you reevaluate, and you make new commitments or recommitments with yourself.

As an aside, I have green shakes on my mind because I'm day three of just such an intensive today.  My weight had climbed because of poor decisions I was making with food to cope with some temporary stress, and I decided it was time to turn that train right back around.  Down 9 lbs. in three days—healthily, I assure you, as some of that is inflammation and excess water weight—and loving the burst of vitality after a rocky couple of days detoxing all of those bad food decisions away!

I already know after my ten day intensive, I'm committing to 90 days of a green shake a day.  A combined one-hundred days of green shakes.  Can you imagine?  I can, and I'm looking forward to it.

You heard it here first, my newest hundred day challenge.  I have a feeling this will be much easier to achieve than my hundred days of Bikram yoga doubles.

For those that aren't in the know, this blog was originally started to share my experience doing three hours a day of hot yoga for one-hundred days, and I'm proud to say that I showed up, limbered up, and got the T-shirt!

And, yes, I still practice yoga.  It is an integral part of my regular maintenance.

Namaste