Day One - I survived!

First day anxiety is a real thing for me. It has prevented me from starting several projects or goals in the past, but I am learning to embrace my fear and step out of my comfort box little bits at a time.

I am approaching my training the same way. My first conscious thought is what my day will bring me. If I start to feel overwhelmed, I just remember: It's one day. I've already planned for it, and hopefully I did some preparation the night before. I just have to roll out of bed and do what I agreed to do according to the plan I set out the night before. Past Me has made sure everything is set out and ready to go for the day. Which is another challenge. I tend to flake out in the evening pretty early, which if I don't prepare for my next day, gets my morning off to a rocky start. So it all starts in the evening. 

Last night I planned my day out. I knew I'd be going to cycling class and then straight to work, so I had to really be on top of it. I spent about 30 minutes getting ready here's my quick and dirty check-list:

• Finalize my menu and my schedule - For more strategies on developing a good habit of pre-planning, check out www.MonaPlanner.com There are also lots of great menu-planning resources out there.
• Put my food in serving sized containers - Check out BeachBody's 21 Day Fix for a reminder of portion size and more strategies to help eat a well rounded menu.
• Picked out my clothes for my workout - set on the bathroom counter where I can't miss 'em and I don't have to turn the bedroom light on
• Packed my clothes for work in a bag and set them in my 'staging area' next to my purse
• Made sure all my smoothie and coffee making items were clean and ready
• Set my heart rate belt and my phone out to charge
• Set my alarm for the appropriate time (usually 5:30am)

I am proud to say I managed to get out of the house on time having meditated, made coffee and my smoothie. I grabbed my pre-packed clothes and my lunch bag and off I went.

Now, it's almost time for bed, and I've accomplished almost everything on my to do list. I'm feeling pretty good - just a few last things left to do before bed and I checked more off my list than I left on, so I'm calling today a success.

2016 - winter training plan

I'm training my mind body and spirit this season. Training includes:

1) Efforting meditation every morning - I have a very specific order of events here so it becomes unconscious: get out of bed, pee, come downstairs, Toss down a cup of cool water with my probiotic, make a hot cup of water with two or three drops of dōTERRA wild orange, go sit in my meditation spot and get right to it. 

2) Mobility: after sitting in meditation for 10-20 minutes, I am ready to start moving. Those in the CST world would recognize my list of movements, but generally, I focus on Breathing with my movement for about 20 minutes.

3) Starting Monday I get right to my training plan. I'll be using the 4-day training wave with the focus that I must keep my heart rate in the appropriate zone no matter what I am doing. My primary goal here is to have my heart rate strap and my phone ready. I'll be rotating Clubbell Yoga with Flowfit and Clubbell Athletics. More on this in another post.

4) Drink my smoothie immediately after training! Why do I always wait so long?)

4) Prepare food each day. - I have a rotating list of simple dishes when I'm working to detox like I will be these first two weeks. I keep the menu simple, light and frequent. I double most recipes for plenty of leftovers, and make sure I have a good mix of veggie dishes and fruit 'desserts' and toss meat in with the veg from time to time. I like having a hash dish I can eat for breakfast, and a big hunk of steel cut oats. 

5) Do something for me each day. This could be taking a bath, reading something inspiring, spending time knitting/crocheting, writing. 

6) Have a meaningful interaction with someone. Some days it's just my husband, some days it's dozens of people (or even hundreds if I'm on stage) I interact with throughout the day. This sometimes is all I need to feel like I've had a successful day.

Life goes on and I also intend to remain flexible and present in the moment. 

Today and tomorrow I am taking the last of the 'me time' to prepare food and finish writing out my goals and decorate for the holidays. 

Ginger Curry soup

This afternoon, I finally got an hour alone in the kitchen to cook. This is one of my favourite flavors of autumn.

1 T. Olive oil

1-2 yellow onions

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 t. (?) Fresh ginger

1 1/2 t. Hot yellow curry powder (Muchi)

1t. Salt

4c. Broth/stock 

1T. Honey

Chop your onion and mince your garlic now, but don't mix them up. Now, coat the bottom of the pot with about 1T. Olive oil. Turn heat on low and wait until the olive oil starts to shimmer. Toss the onions in, stir them around and let them soak up the olive oil. Stir every 1/2 minute or so for the next 5 minutes, to gently sautée the onions. While this is going you can tackle the butternut squash however you need to get about 1" chunks of peeled squash. 

I have a serrated veggie peeler as well as a smooth peeler. I used both today...

Peel the carrots and chop into 1" chunks.

At some point, I turned off the stove and threw the garlic in to soak while I finished chopping. If you don't need to, just give the garlic a minute or so to heat through, but not to get browned (it happens fast). 

Grate the ginger and stir it in with the curry and salt until all the onion is well coated. Add the cut up orange veg. Add the water/stock. I didn't have any stock handy so I used Better Than Bouillon.

Cover and simmer 20 minutes, then take the lid off and let it heat up the house and thicken a bit. 

I have an immersion blender, but if you don't, you can use a blender but do very small batches and let the soup cool for a while (30+ min) before scooping into the blender.

I topped my bowl with a dollop of sour cream.

Deeelish!!