Recap

"Everybody needs a little time away, I heard her say, from each other. Even lovers need a holiday, far away, from each other......"

These opening lines from that famous Chicago song have always gotten to me. I'm listening to Hard to Say I'm Sorry on repeat and desperately wishing I had someone to sing it for... "After all that we've been through, I will make it up to you, I promise to. After all that's been said and done, you're just a part of me I can't let go."

"I couldn't stand being kept away, not for a day, from your body. I wouldn't want to be swept away, far away, from the one that I love. Hold me now, it's hard for me to say I'm sorry, I just want you to know. Hold me now, I really want to tell you I'm sorry, I could never let you go."

Ahh, it's so wonderful.

The diet has been going really well over the past week. I've been drinking green smothies every morning (My usual "Green Guru" smoothie consists of a whole cucumber, avocado, banana, 1 cup of water, a packet of stevia and 5-8 leaves of romaine lettuce) and after just two mornings my taste buds were completely adjusted to them. I've been pretty lucky that way with my taste buds- I can get used to new eating habits really quickly. I'm already in love with my smoothies, and I thought it would take me awhile to resign myself to the flavors.

Lunch is usually a large salad, with a colorful array of veggies, or a bowl of delicious lentil soup with a rice cake and a small serving of applesauce. Applesauce is my new ice cream.
Around 3-4 o'clock I start feeling hungry again, so depending on what variation I had for lunch, I might munch on a few carrots and have another banana, or stick half a whole-wheat english muffin in the toaster and spread a light amount of almond butter on it.
This usually ties me over 'til dinner, when I indulge myself in my daily meat intake. (I honestly am amazed to say that I think I skipped 40% and went right on down to 20% almost instantly. I'm STILL not sure how I did it so easily.)
In order to keep dinner a non-stressful and coordinated event, I'll usually partake of whatever the rest of the family is eating.
Unless it's something like hamburgers, or sloppy joes, or chili, or even meatloaf.
Then I'll have grilled chicken, with a salad, or with a dish of quinoa.
Then, for desert, or any other time of the day I have a sweet tooth that won't go away, I have a very small sliver of 74% cacao dark chocolate with raspberry infusion.
All it takes is one teeny-tiny sliver, and my sweet tooth is satisfied.
Before bed I usually treat myself to a hot cup of white, sometimes herbal, (bye-bye earl grey) tea. I've got a tarragon mint herbal tea, and a blueberry-cranberry fusion white tea that I absolutely love.
And sometimes the berry tea is great for sugar cravings, because with a little bit of stevia it's nice and sweet without being detrimental to my new diet regime.

I'm careful not to be too strict, however. Monday night I indulged in a few chips ahoy cookies and some cheesecake at family night. Tonight, I treated myself to a spinach chicken pizza at work, after being extremely careful with what I ate all day long.
Plus, if I've done yoga earlier in the day, I tend to be a teensy bit more lenient, because as I'm burning those calories I need to be taking a few more in.

Doing yoga more than three times a week is proving much easier than I thought it would be. I've done it three days in a row already this week, and each time it just gets easier, and it feels more and more like a routine. A really great, peace-creating, healthy body, mind and soul sort of routine. I totally dig it.

I've also kept up pretty well with my daily devotions. I may not always get them done first thing in the morning, today's devotion took place around 4:30 in the afternoon before I had to get ready for work, but I at least get them done every day. I've been really enjoying them, too. I bought this Women's Devotional Bible years ago, and didn't get very far into it because I was only 12 and didn't really comprehend a lot of what I was reading anyways. So now it's nice to know that the ten bucks I spent on it hasn't gone to waste, and that I can get a lot out of it seeing that I've matured a wee bit more. ;)

So....yeah! That's the best update on my 2011 Vitality changes that I can give at the moment. I haven't really improved on balancing my checkbook more often, but hey, I have to remember to be gentle with myself during this time of change, too. You can't have everything and eat your cake too, or however that saying goes. I think I just combined two sayings, actually. Hm. That reminds me of a line from one of my favorite movies!
"P-p-people in glass houses, s-s-sink ships." - Boondock Saints.
:)

Well, I've got a rather splitting headache, so I'm going to hit the hay.

"Everybody needs a little time away..."

My loves,
my doves,
my eggs.

Goodnight, world.