Life Changes

Over the past few months I've made some lifestyle changes. Truth be told, I feel a little more hippy, and a lot more down to earth. I have a lot more energy and feel more adventurous and happy. Here's what I've started doing differently:

Eating better. I have a huge sweet tooth. And a huge salt tooth (if that's such a thing). I love my junk food. From Half Baked Ben and Jerry's Ice cream to Cape Cod Salt and Vinegar and Sweet Maui Onion Chips, I love to eat. I guess I have good genes, because my body hasn't really showed how much I love my junk food (besides my muffin tops). But over the past few months I have really enjoyed shopping the produce section of our grocery stores, even more than usual. And I haven't just switched to salads. I eat spaghetti squash as spaghetti, brussel sprouts, guacamole, lots and lots of spinach (usually in a morning egg scramble with onions and bell peppers. I snack on celery and peanut butter, carrots and ranch dressing, and lots of fruits. Mangoes, kiwis, bananas, and blackberries (I've discovered that blackberries are probably my favorite fruit, they're just usually so expensive). Yesterday I was musing that I couldn't decide which fruit or veggie I wanted to snack on, and that's when it hit me that my eating habits had changed, as opposed to just restricting myself. And don't get me wrong. I still snack. Yesterday I had chocolate covered toffee popcorn, and it was delicious. But I crave healthy stuff a lot more, and it's not a hard choice to eat healthier than it was a couple months ago. But I've traded in my Half Baked Ice Cream for Frozen Greek Yogurt (the best is the blueberry vanilla graham flavor).

Being Active. I've been able to get away with not really needing to work out. I have my qualms with my body, but I've been lucky that my body doesn't betray my eating habits. But that doesn't mean that I'm healthy. In fact, I have zero endurance for any kind of endurance. I hate working out. I always have. I hate feeling like I'm overheating. I hate breaking a sweat through work out. I hate how my face gets sooo red when I work out. But I like being able to go hiking and not get so winded. I like being able to be active because I work out, not work out just to lose weight (although that's a bonus). So a little over 2 weeks ago I started Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred series. Since it was free on youtube I had nothing to lose. I did 10 days on level 1 and then moved onto level 2. I did four days on that and then was done. I no longer had a desire to continue the series. I didn't even see level 3's video. But on Tuesday I felt super weak and just couldn't bring myself to work out. Normally I do it first thing in the morning but I wasn't feeling well and just didn't do it. Yesterday I started doing it and got half way through before I had had enough. I don't think that it was too hard. It wasn't that. It was hard, but I felt good after. I felt like I was getting stronger, and that felt great. My endurance still sucks, but it was a little better, and I didn't expect it to change much in 2 weeks. I think that I just got bored. But I figure that with all of the free work out videos out there, I'll just vary it up. Today I did a yoga video. Ideally I'd rather get outside and go for a long walk on the beach or a hike up to two trees or in Malibu, but on the in between days I'll just vary my work out videos. By the way, I still hate working out. I don't know if that will ever change.

Hair Habits. At the beginning I mentioned that I felt a bit hippy. This is where this fits in. I love my hair and have always wanted it really long. My hair is fine and thin though, so getting it grown out is hard to do! Since high school I have done hair masks and gone through numerous hair products trying to find that special one. Lately the trend has been dry shampoo and not washing your hair every day, but instead about twice a week. So this is what I have started doing. I started with every other day washing it, because that was even hard. I started putting dry shampoo in on the off days (the idea being that while it soaks up the oil, it isn't stripping the hair like shampoo does, but leaves it in the hair, thus being better). I still shower my body most days, but I've heard that isn't that great for your skin either. The French may have had a great idea with the boday. It's been over 2 months since I started washing my hair twice a week, and I feel like my hair is a little healthier. It feels stronger. Of course, I won't really be able to see results for a few more months as it continues to grow. As a result of not washing it every day I've also gotten more savvy with french braids and other hair styles since it's not always pretty to have down.

Those are the main changes in my life right now. Nothing else has really changed. Still working at Target and American Eagle. Although I think there's going to be some changes with each of those in the coming weeks. This year has just flown by. It's cliche, but man time just goes faster and faster as you get older. I'm almost as old as Doug was when we got married. And we've almost been married for 4 years! Crazy! I'm still just loving this adventure of a life :)