Living between Black and White

Yesterday, I commented on this post on Instagram:

My comment was about how BECAUSE of INTUITIVE EATING, I come back to Arbonne's protein, fizz, and detox tea, and the recipes I've learned through them after a few days of eating all the foods I wanted to eat. I was fully expecting the crowd to debate me a bit, but I actually had quite a few people like my comment and then reply in agreement.

Except then my comment and like 9 replies were deleted, so one other girls asked why. The owner of the account mentioned that there are people struggling with disordered thinking around food and that their account was a safe space free from people promoting their MLM products. I get that. Except we didn't promote them, instead, were just carrying on a debate about detox. Also want to point out that the owner of the account used #arbonne in her original post, so, that just felt a little confusing. I understand that she was definitely not promoting arbonne, but she obviously wanted us to see it, but why, if you're not going to hold a debate about it? Seemed unfair, but oh well.

One part of one of the comments I made was about black and white thinking - that we can believe in intuitive eating AND healthy habits that can be found elsewhere, even from a company that is MLM. Like everything else, there's a huge grey area!

One of my very good friends recently started following #intuitiveeating on Instagram. If I had to sum up what I have found this to mean is that food is not our enemy; we should follow our instincts with eating - like if we are hungry, or craving something specific we should just have it; and we should work to be body positive no matter where we are on our on our journey with our health. Intuitive eating also rallies against diet culture, detoxing, cleansing, and processes along those lines.

As many of you know, I am also a consultant with Arbonne, so I've been working on making all this fit together. I have been asking myself, "Is Arbonne intuitive eating? Do we promote diet culture?"  Our program, called 30 Days to Healthy Living (30DHL) is an elimination diet for 30 days... so maybe? I went on to ask myself, "Am I part of this problem?"

But the more I follow along, the more I am finding that Arbonne's goals are in line with #intuitiveeating. It just takes some work on the front end for each individual person to find the specific things that trigger their individual bodies.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is highly addictive, acidic, allergenic, and inflammatory. Foods that contain gluten, caffeine, alcohol, sugar, dairy, and soy may not be in our best interest to be eating ALL THE TIME. With Arbonne, we omit those ingredients for 30 days, and then add them back one at a time afterwards to find out what ingredients are particularly triggering for each individual person who tries our program out. It's not that you can't have foods with those ingredients after your 30 days, just that you will be able to notice how different ingredients trigger you. Case in point for me: eating a TON of my dad's pizza (it's sooo good!) and then having to lay down for like 3 hours because I totally overdid it and my stomach was telling me so. Those moments of noticing is intuitive eating.

The goals of 30DHL are to promote health in many ways: better sleep, clearer skin, no head fog, more energy, less headaches and migraines, better digestion, and supporting organs of elimination just to name a few. Weight loss is also an effect for many who complete our program. 30DHL is built for individuals to find healthy habits that work for them. Our program is about being nourished, it's not a quick-fix weight loss strategy that makes crazy promises and ends after 30 days.

I've read countless books that echo the goals of our program: Body Love (Leveque), How to Make Disease Disappear (Chattergee), Medical Medium (William), and It starts with Food (Hartwig) to name a few. Furthermore, Dr. Tanda Cook, Naturopathic Doctor, also recommends the habits our program teaches.

And that's just it: we are habits-based and our goals are to help individuals find habits to last a lifetime. Learn about probiotics and then take them daily to aid digestive processes. Take a shot of Greens Balance in the morning because most people do not have the time to get all the servings of veggies our microbiomes truly need. Add a detox tea that will deliver nutrition to your liver so it can function AT IT'S BEST rather than being bogged down trying to process an excess of  inflammatory ingredients that don't  serve us. Turns out that Cheryl from the meme above is  right - that the functionality of our liver can be enhanced by nourishing it in the proper way. (See Medical Medium's book for more on that.)

It was intuitive eating that led me back to supplements that add health to my body after all that pizza. It's intuitive eating that has my body craving our vegan protein shakes. It's intuitive eating that says, "Go ahead, and have that ice cream, because you're fully aware that dairy is a trigger for you, and you are in fact choosing it's effects." 

I'm really curious to know your thoughts. How am I doing with this intuitive eating thing? Am I getting close to understanding it? Can I live in the grey area between that and 30DHL? I've never felt better about my appearance and how I feel on the inside, so something's working here!

Leave a note in the comments, let's keep this conversation going. And EB, I'm most interested in hearing your thoughts on this one, friend!

Be well everyone!

Magic

As my sixteenth year of teaching concludes, just doing a bit of reflecting on how lucky I am to work with amazing educators and teach the best kids.

A few weeks ago,  during our poetry unit, we made all the students write a few poems. While I usually write the pieces I ask kids to, I hadn't yet, so when a student asked me, "Well, where's your poem, Brezek?" I decided I had better get to work. This is what came about.

Magic
Once upon a time
I stepped into a kingdom
where I was queen
and students were my little monsters

In the beginning, many days I felt
     Confused
     Overwhelmed and sometimes
     Sad
because my apprenticeship
had not yet prepared me
for the spells I had to cast
over my students.

In time I earned my wand
that radiates stardust over the littles, like
     love, and
     belonging, and
     acceptance;
making them sparkle and shine
inside and out.

The monsters picked up all those ELA tricks:
     20 pages a day
     Journals and quickwrites
     Signposts and book clubs
     TIQA and poetry
     Acing assessments

But even more dazzling was our family.
Kids quickly
     became besssstfriends
     joked together
     said hi in the hallways
     let their true selves be seen as they
     had lunch together and
     loved one another

Sixteen empires have come and gone
and not one has quite been
the special realm
that is
BB3

Thank you
for making my teaching life
magical.

Next year I'll be at Heritage, a school that is such a special place. I will continue as Literacy Coach but not have a section of ELA anymore. Hoping to coteach with a few of our teachers in various units throughout the year and can't wait! (Well, first day of summer... so I can wait a bit!) ;-)

Hope all the teachers have THE BEST summer vacation!

Recreational Drug Use

I'm not talking about weed. Or ecstasy for that matter.

I'm talking sugar.

The Standard American Diet is full of it. A typical day in my eating life of the yore could have gone like this: cereal for breakfast, or a bagel and OJ. A granola bar would have been an excellent morning snack. Lunch consisted of a PBJ, some pretzels, and a yogurt. Or a Lean Cuisine. I'd be hungry again around 2:30 or 3:00 so I'd reach for, oh, I don't know, a Zone Bar? Some Cheeze-its? For dinner it was pasta with garlic bread. Eating every 3 hours or so, and I was usually still hungry, cranky, sleepy, and irritated.

Can you see all the sugar there? Or the carbs that digest into glucose, which is the same thing?

Dr. Mark Hymann, in the video on this blog, referred to sugar as a recreational drug. The Standard American Diet has us eating too many carbs, including too much pop and other sugary drinks, and too much processed food. (80% of processed food has added sugar!) We are eating this way, and we shouldn't be, and he feels so strongly about sugar, he says it should be consumed only very sparingly. Let me show you what happens when you eat a day's worth of food like the one I mentioned above:

(Side note: I'm pretty sure I got this right, but it's all super new to me, so if you find an error, please tell me!)

Your body wants to maintain an equilibrium, called homeostasis. A constant temperature and balanced blood sugar levels are examples of this. If you eat a bowl of Lucky Charms and a side of toast for breakfast, you get that super quick surge of energy from the sugar. But the body does not like for blood sugar to be high, so the pancreas releases insulin to ferry the sugar from the blood, and sends it one of three places: the liver, the muscles, or fat cells.

As the insulin goes to work, your blood sugar levels don't just go to normal range, they crash way below normal. This crash signals your brain that you're hungry again, and the hormones coursing through your system leave you craving those same sugars it just removed from the blood. You reach for the granola bar and then the whole cycle repeats itself for the second time that day.

This is where we've been misled about dieting and calorie counting or carb counting or counting whatever. We shouldn't be counting anything. We shouldn't be eating every three hours. Instead, we should just be eating those nutrients that will satiate us and keep our blood sugar in normal range. When you eat that way, you can have three meals a day and be good to go.

In Body Love, Kelly LeVeque suggests instead we create meals around these four macronutrients, the Fab4:

Green and fibrous carbohydrates
Purpose: promotes gut health by feeding the beneficial bacteria, adds all the essential vitamins and minerals we need, removes toxins from the body
Green carbohydrates, think: Organic veggies deep in color (have as much as you want!)
Fibrous Carbohydrates, think: fruit, whole grains (including oatmeal, pasta, and whole-grain breads, rice, wheat, seeds and nuts, starchy veggies such as potatoes, corn, and squash, and beans, lentils, and peas (should be a small portion of your meal)

Protein
Purpose: cell and tissue growth, signals to your brain you're full
Think: Grass fed beef, free range chicken, wild caught fish, eggs, a protein powder with a full amino-acid complex (Arbonne's!), quinoa, buckwheat, chickpeas

Fat
Purpose: brain functioning, hormone production and balance, immune protection, slows digestion
Think: Wild caught fatty fish, avocados, the oils: olive, coconut, or a clean butter, and nuts, chia seeds

LeVeque says, "When the body doesn't get sufficient amounts of these food sources, or the foods come in a form that has been modified by chemicals or is low in nutrients, the body adjust in a number of negative ways, most of which lead to weight gain and inflammation." (p. 18)

Basically, if you are not eating that way most of the time, your body is probably in a constant state of inflammation, which means your organs are working OVERTIME, ALL THE TIME to correct everything back as close to homeostasis as possible. This chronic inflammation manifests as a variety of symptoms: acne, psoriasis, weight gain, poor sleep, migraines, PMS, brain fog, etc etc. If left untreated, ask LeVeque goes on to say, "Your body might turn on itself and develop diseases such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, and cancer" (p. 19).

You guys, knowledge is power, and I'm so glad I learned all of this! Now, I know if I'm going to reach for that donut, I will be aware of the crash that will follow shortly thereafter, and I will have some kind of Fab 4 meal or shake or snack nearby to stop the cycle from repeating. It's not that we can never indulge, it's just that we have to know how to respond when we do decide to have that treat.

Optimal blood sugar levels, created by eating #Fab4 at each meal

I'll be back again soon with another post on some of my favorite Fab 4 smoothie recipes. Some people say that a protein shake isn't a real meal, but I disagree. Mine are packed with vegan protein, spinach, avocado oil, fiber, and some fruit to sweeten it up. We're talking 5-6 hours of no hunger and no cravings because your blood sugar is set to a normal range. That's a win in my book!

If you don't want to wait, here are a few things you can do now:


1. Contact me about Arbonne's 30 Days to Healthy Living (30DHL). Our program is built around balancing blood sugar, creating optimal gut health, and eating clean, all of which will lead to reducing inflammation in the body and releasing those symptoms mentioned above!

2. Get a copy of Body Love and read for yourself.

3. Watch Fed Up on iTunes, I watched it last night, $3.99 rental.

Thoughts? I'd love to hear from you! Have you completed a 30DHL? Read Body Love or watched Fed Up? Were you already aware of this blood sugar situation or is this new? Please leave a comment with your feedback!

Be well, friends!

overcommitted, but still finding the joy

Last week was rough for me. In particular last Friday was the worst. I was on exhaustion status which ran my patience thin. Then I reached out to a parent and had a response that I wasn't expecting. And so I cried. I got off the phone and went in the a quiet office to shake it off, and then went on about my day.

I haven't written since before then too, I have bitten off waaaay more than I can chew. I do this sometimes. Volleyball? Love it. Volunteering at church? Also love. Slicing in march with all my friends? Yes, please. But add that to all my other commitments and getting closer towards spring break and it's a recipe for disaster.

The last post I composed and connected with TWT was about a week ago, and around that time I had also read the post on TWT storytelling and band-aids. There's definitely moments when I'm writing on steam of consciousness and not doing the bit-by-bit storytelling. I think in the past week I  got in my head and was judging my work, and perhaps the past eight days when I haven't blogged, maybe I've given up a little.

But then I got an invitation to blog with friends. I was supposed to do this last Thursday, but then things were really hectic, and to be completely honest, I totally forgot.

But I've been remembering about this appointment ever since last Thursday at this time. Right now I'm visiting a fifth grade classroom and it's...peaceful. The room is lovingly managed by two teachers who hold very high expectations for the kids, and yet also find ways to joke and laugh with them in such a way that they kids can get right back to work shortly after. Their morning meeting was calming and full of smiles and now students are scattered around the room writing in flexible seating spots. A new friend came up and sat and chatted with me, and now we are sitting side by side, writing together.

What I love about this TWT community (and my local community here in Berwyn) is the connection it brings. To sit down with someone, and just be in the same space, even if that means you are sitting without talking, and writing instead, I honestly can't think of another place I'd rather be at this moment. Thank you KS and KVW for inviting me, and not being upset with me when I totally spaced last week. This moment has reinvigorated my writing life this month!

🤷🏽‍♀️

No ideas now.

Too lazy to create one.

So this is it, kids.

Original Gangsta

This isn't even my slice to tell, but it was so funny, I had to post it.

My ELA class is a combination of 7th and 8th grade students. They stay for two years, so our current eighth graders are on year two with us. It's cool, because they become the mentors to the seventh graders.

Yesterday, when I was home sick, I guess one of the seventh graders told one of the eighth graders that he needed to rename the turtle (the stuffed animal turtle that sits in the window and is used as a talking piece sometimes during discussions).

She replied, "You aren't even an OG in this class, you can't name the turtle!"

My coteacher told me she overheard this conversation yesterday and meant to text it to me last night. Kids are so funny, especially when they use language like this in the perfect context!

hope

I am on the RCIA team at my church. Last night, we all went over to the cathedral in Chicago for the Rite of Election. All of the candidates have signed the Book of Elect, and are joining the Catholic faith at the Easter Vigil.

It was just a beautiful service. The church is much different than my home church, must more.... angular. But beautiful in a totally different way!

And the most beautiful thing? Probably a few hundred people who feel called to the Catholic faith, all going to complete the Sacraments in a few short weeks.

Before Old St. Pats, I noticed the "churchy" people, but didn't get it. It felt a certain way to read when they posted bible verses, a way that was just confusing to me. I kinda stayed away because we fear what we don't understand usually, right?

But now I'm one of those people. Now I get it, because now I know how much peace I find sitting in the pews at my home church. The music is beautiful, our priests give the best homilies, and each Sunday I am filled up with so much joy that I feel compelled to go forward and find all the abundant things in my life... and attempt to share them with others :-)

So to all of those people who are going to be baptized and then confirmed on Easter Vigil, thank you for reminding us of all the hope that exists in our community. In spite of all the brokenness that is the Catholic Church, each of you are a reminder that there is so much hope to be found in this precious life.

good news!

This is a model from writing I picked up watching Rachel Hollis on Amazon Prime in Made for More. Before they start their training, they ask the crowd to share good news. This news could be simple things like "I found my fave new shoes ON SALE" or bigger things like, "My cousin beat cancer." All news is good news, so here is some from me today.

Good news!
I got a huge chunk of my To Do list completed on Thursday.

Good news!
The weather in Chicago is creeping up into the 40s. It's a heat wave!

Good news!
My class's behavior was ON POINT Thursday. Like, so much that I offered 15 minutes of free time tomorrow (first time all year) if they could do that again. It was BLISSSSSSS.

Good news!
I saw Aziz Ansari the other night. SOOO GOOD.

Good news!
The last of four book club books came in and our new 7th grade book clubs are all set in poetry: The Crossover, Brown Girl Dreaming, Bronx Masquerade, and Home of the Brave. Can't wait to get started with these after spring break!

Good news!
After days of indulging on not-so-healthy food choices, it's always great to return to routines and add health back in via densely nutritious protein shakes and detox teas.

Good news!
We rolled the clocks back so the daylight will stay with us even longer now. Summer is on the horizon!

steamy

Every year my friend, she's so kind, takes me to the Avani Spa in Fontana, Wisconsin. We get a massage and hang out in the pool area all day. It's lovely.

My fave location in the whole place? The steam room. I had never been in one before coming here, but I love sitting in there.

Just Thursday I finally caught a cold, so to sit in a room that's like a giant netty pot is THE BEST. (Minus the gross part of the netty pot.) I swear, my skin is so conditioned every time I get to spend some time in this little, it's-a-good-sweat room! Wanna go sit in a giant humidifier? Yes, please!

when lunch stinks

I am a meal planning person. Every weekend I make a bunch of lunches and some dinners and portion them up so I'm good to go daily with healthy food to keep me feeling well throughout the week. This week I made a Portillo's Chopped salad (it's delicious) and homemade dressing.

The dressing consists of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and a bunch of spices.

Fast forward to yesterday, I ate in my classroom alone. Was much in need of some quiet time. Salad was delicious, I ate at my conferring table. And as the kids came in for block 4, I haphazardly threw all the dishes into my lunch bag, but didn't close up the containers. I didn't realize how strong of a scent that particular dressing had.

Block 4 began, I was working on some other things outside of my room, but ran back to my space about 45 minutes later to grab something. I come in to Israel shaking his head. "Ms. Brezek. Why?" He, along with a few others, were working together with their teacher at my conferring table. Israel continues, "That smell, it's terrible. What was that?"

I had no context for what he was talking about. I must have looked confused, because his teacher chimed in. "I moved your lunch bag over there and also dropped a few drops of lavender essential oil. The kids were really distracted by your lunch."

Israel continued, "Yeah, it smells so bad. What *was that?"

Feeling a little embarrassed, I realized I didn't wash the dishes or or even close the lids. "Oh yeah, sorry guys, it was salad dressing..."

Israel interrupts again, "It's like, I just can't focus. It's so strong." He's shaking his head, clearly distraught.

At the time, I didn't realize how strong it was. But that night after school, I didn't go home, I had another commitment. And on my way there, I slammed on my brakes, my lunch bag flew to the floor, and the scents got all wound up again. I picked it all up, but when I got into my car that evening after about 3 hours of time, it did smell. It totally stunk, and I could feel Israel's pain.

How is it that I can have a delicious lunch and the remnants are just miserable?!

on being a mom (kinda)

So did you read my post about Annie a few days ago? If not, start there.

Today I saw her during block 4 and I don't even remember what she was talking my ear off about but then I interrupted, "I wrote about you and Adam on my blog."

"AHHHHH, MS. BREZEK! WHYYYYY?" She paused, then continued, "I gotta read it."

Lauren was overhearing this and says, "Oh, on bigtimeliteracy? Let me pull that up." (Lauren did her first slice of life challenge in 4th grade with me, FOUR years ago, nbd.) :-)

She does and reads it. She tells me, "You write so descriptively."

My heart swells. Because (1) she compliments my writing, but more so (2) she can appreciate descriptive writing.

Annie walks back over to me, all smiles. Kinda embarrassed, but also kinda appreciating the attention. "You're like my mom, Ms. Brezek." She's smiling, kinda laughing. "Like, she does stuff like this. I don't know, you're just kinda like her."

(I honestly don't remember anything she said after the comparison.)

Mostly I was just feeling like I got the best compliment ever.

multi-tasking is b*ll$h*t

I bought this book awhile ago:

I tried it out and it was difficult, so I set it aside. Then I noticed Oprah was doing a book study with the author, Eckhart Tolle, on her podcast. This week she released the conversation about chapter 9, next week it will all conclude.

In chapter 9 book, Eckhart states:

I used to think multitasking was the thing. Like look at me, I'm getting all these things done all at once, woweeeee!

But in the past few years, I've reconsidered. You can't be doing all the things at once. Well, to rephrase, you can be, but you won't be doing them well.

I find myself sitting at my desk at work, focused on one task. Then my email will ping, and I USED to just stop my work flow and go over to my email. At times now, I still do that, but now I catch myself. And I stop myself. And I go back to the first thing I was doing until it's complete. Then I will probably check my to do list before I go to the email, because people do not need a reply within 1 or 10 or even 60 minutes. Things can wait.

Our phones cause the same problem. We are doing something - making lunch or washing dishes, or folding laundry, or even at dinner with a friend or family member. The phone pings, and you interrupt what you're doing and give your attention that that.

Now that I've been more reflective of this fact, I've gotten so much more mindful of my phone. If I'm out with a friend, the phone is out of sight. I want the people I'm with to know that they are what's most important. I want my full attention to be on them.

If I'm home working on something, like right now, I'm writing this blog. My phone is on silent. It's still within arm's reach, but it's turned over and on silent. I want to finish one thing at a time.

When I'm at work in planning meetings of any sort, my phone is usually right there, but it's on silent and turned over. I'm not responding to email and I even try super hard to keep head space fully engaged with what I'm working on with people. It's important to me to be fully present for the 40-45 minutes we are working together.

And when I'm alone, I am tired of being anxious about the future or stressed about something I said earlier in the day. So now I just try and catch myself when I'm in anything but the present moment. It takes time, but it's making a difference to be fully present at each moment. And it helps.

Anyways, I guess I used to think multitasking was the shit, but now I think it's bullshit. So let's spend some time together so I can get fully present to you and I and the work or fun we will find ourselves in.

Sidenote #1: I do like taking pics, so I may grab my phone for that. But the posting of said pics, later on :-)

Sidenote #2: I highly recommend you listen to Oprah's series on this book. Chapters 1 and 2 are tough, but starting on 3, it's amazing, and I think about as life-changing as Brené Brown's work!

Who's with me on this?

what I'm loving

Some things I'm currently loving are...

♥ that all my friends are blogging right now.
Our district has some pretty forward-thinking teachers, so it's cool how we're all sharing small moments of our daily lives with one another in March.

♥ that spring is coming!
Pretty sure we turn the clocks ahead next weekend. St. Patty's Day is coming (one year it was like 65 in Chicago that day, hoping for that!) Baseball is coming. Spring break is coming. WHen the sun is out, my spirits have an instant lift!

♥ rituals and traditions.
Fat Tuesday is here, tomorrow Ash Wednesday, and it's the season of Lent. Easter will be here soon. I love these parts of the calendar each year to remind me of things in life, and that they signal new easons are upon us!

♥ Hobby Lobby.
I've been dreaming of the gallery wall I want to create in my living room above my desk. Hobby Lobby has the best stuff for this, can't wait to share it with you once it's complete!

♥ my yearly visit to Lake Geneva with Lizzy!
Next weekend we will go to the spa and stay at the room her parents own at the resort. There's always a lovely brunch in there, too, can't wait to go!

♥ the app called Over.
If you like Word Swag, this one takes it up like 100 levels, but you can create amazing graphics and flyers from the convenience of your iPhone!

What are you loving at the moment?

tweet tweet

Ahhh, spring in 8th grade. (Today it's 2 degrees in Chicago, but who's counting?) But ahhhh, spring in 8th grade. The kids are finding their boyfriends and girlfriends, and what esle could be better?

Well, what could be worse is your teacher calling you out on it.

There are these two kiddos who I especially adore. Let's call them Annie and Adam. I have known Annie since she was in fifth grade, when that was our last year at the elementary school. After that year, we both looped up (me back) to the middle school.

The following year, I had Adam in homeroom. Sixth graders are kinda shy, but he was always a personable kid. Annie and I lost a bit of touch until this year, but we have since reconnected and I see her, and Adam, every day again.

As eighth graders, these two are the best. They are funny, witty, smart, people persons. They are both in ELA with Andrea during block 4, and although I do not teach that block with her, I sometimes find myself in there after my other commitments, packing up to go home. Without a doubt, these two will ALWAYS find a way to say hello. Annie sits right by where my space is, and Adam usually needs his pencil sharpened (which is right by my space) about the time I return.

For most of the year, it was just fun and pleasantries. Until Annie and Adam became an item.

Now, I can do that thing that parents and teachers do - just a look and they'll blush.

But sometimes, I'll see them in the hall together, and I'll be like, "Hey Lovebirds!" (This is so reminiscent of Julia Bray, a coteacher I had about a decade ago, that I miss dearly.)

They will see, or hear this, and immediately blush and walk away from one another.

But the best? One afternoon I did this, and a friend of Adam's, let's call him Sam, followed up my greeting with "Tweet, tweet." 

Someone who understands me!

This is the best, especially with the kindest, funniest, happiest kids who will let it go and quietly remind me later to please stop. (I will not.)

Chirp

I live in an apartment. Five units, three floors. I'm on the second floor, rear apartment. I love this home. When people visit they always tell me, "It's so cozy here." Yup.  This is part of the reason I'm cool being home by myself.

But there is a chirp happening. It's the smoke detector in the hallway to the units, somewhere. Throughout the day when I'm home, I hear it, but intermittently. So I hear it, think I should fix it, remind myself I don't have a ladder, and then continue with what I was doing in the first place.

But then it chirps again.

Totally reminded me of that modern family episode when Phil Dunphy (one of my fave characters of all time on TV) tries to fix his, check it out:

There mine goes again. I think I'll text my landlord and let him take care of it. After all, he's making the big bucks.

On Being Seen

I had a hard week. There were a lot of meetings, a lot of things to do, I didn't even realize my to do list was so long on Monday morning when I got to work. Does that ever happen to you? You come into work all casual and calm, and then it's like a bomb went off within 20 minutes? On a work level, that was how my week started.

Additionally I've been pretty aggravated on the dating scene. Usually the problem is I meet guys, and it's not a match. The last one was a match. But now the timing is off. Uggghhh.

I hadn't really reflected much on my week aside from being annoyed at how stressed I was. But then I woke up Friday morning to a text from a friend from school. It was a gif of a hug and her message said, "Felt like you could use a hug! You seemed down today and it made me sad friend."

I didn't realize how I was coming off so.....sad? But she did.

And this text message? Instant lift.

Is the best thing to be seen, or what? To know that there are people out there who care for you so much that they stop everything they are doing to send a message and let you know that you matter?

In the big grand scheme of life, I can't think of few other acts of love, like this one, that has the power to drastically change someone's day. So to my friend, and her coteacher who is also this way with me, thank you. My week is ending way better than how it started.

Cookie Complication

Can we talk about Girl Scout cookies for a hot second? Like, how I have no self control with them?

When your friends' kids are on Facebook being little entrepreneurs and promising funny videos when they hit 50 boxes sold, you place an order. Obviously, the cookies are delicious, so you were planning on it anyways, but then the videos make it even more precious.

I ordered four boxes this year: three Thin Mint and one S'mores. $20 seemed like a good donation. Except I'm only one person. I live alone. And I didn't gift any of the boxes to anyone.

I'm pretty embarrassed to say that I got the four boxes just one week ago. Three boxes are gone completely, and I've about finished a sleeve of Thin Mints as I am typing this.

I can go for WEEKS eliminating dairy, gluten, sugar, caffeine, alcohol and soy. AND YET, when the girl scout cookies arrive, my thinking turns into, "Well, at least if I just hurry up and eat them, they will be out of the house." Like, wuuuut?

And after a sleeve of Thin Mints? I know I will feel so terrible. But. I. Just. Can't. Stop.

So my request: please tell me I'm not the only one living this insanity at cookie time. Just a quick comment, and it can be as simple as that little emoji with his/her hand in the air. That would mean so much!

Miracle Morning

Happy Monday Friends! Awesome to be home today on a snowy Monday, three day weekend. On deck today are all the chores I didn't do yet, like laundry, more meal prep for the week, planning out some things for school tomorrow, and getting paperwrok in line for my taxes tomorrow night. BUUUTTT, that stuff isn't fun, so instead I'm listening to Ariana Grande and blogging :-) Today I'm going to share a routine that is all about self care and putting yourself first. If you want to earn some of those self-care reward stickers, read on!

Today, like all my other days, I got up and started with Miracle Morning. This is a habit I've been working on since January and it's making such a difference in my life. It gets my mind set straight before any of the stressors of life enter. Let me tell you what it involves, and then tell you what I'm finding.

Six steps, order then as you wish, but remember "SAVERS" as an acronym to get all the benefits.

Silence
I'm talking meditation, prayer, breathing. Just be. Work on calming the mind and your thoughts so you can learn to be more fully present. I use the Calm app for this which has awesome, daily 10 minute meditations. If you're a teacher you can get a free account, just go here. No matter how you choose to do so, find some quiet silence to begin your day.

Affirmations
Tell yourself some encouraging words to live out your life's purpose. Think in terms of gratitude! Every day, I write down five things I'm thankful for as a way to affirm the good things that have already come into my life. When you get in the habit of looking for things you are thankful for, you start to see more and more of that as you go about your day.

Vision
To start with this, you need to get your goals down. They can be yearly goals, or goals for a 3-5 year plan, or even 10 years. Some people make vision boards as such a way to visualize them. Once you know your goals, you will write them every morning in present tense. Mine start out like this:

10 dreams I made happen (this is a la Rachel Hollis and her Start Today Journal, currently sold out, but pop to that link to get your name on the list!) Okay so in my journal, this Vision part looks like this:

10 dreams I made happen 
1. I have impeccable health, in mind, body, and spirit.
2. I have $10K in savings.

and they go on like that, all 10, written every day. By hand writing them, you spend a little bit of time on each, and if you have a vision board, have that close so you can visualize. Law of Attraction. It's the thing!

Exercise
Not a whole production, either. Just five minutes to get your blood flowing. I set my timer for 5 min and do the following, mostly yoga:

Sun A flow a few times
High Plank
Down Dog
Sleeping Pigeon
Pushups
Supine Twist
Happy Baby

No matter what you choose, just get five minutes of movement in to get your day going. While you're doing that, you can work on calming the mind. If you have a hard time with that, focus on deep  breathing.

Reading
Read some cool stuff to fill up your mind with positivity. I love The Book of Awakening for this. It's a day book with short passages each day to inspire you. Sometimes they inspire you to let stuff go. Sometimes they inspire you to reconsider some limiting beliefs. Sometimes they reaffirm a belief you hold. Sometimes it's poetry, sometimes its a quote, sometimes it pushes your thinking. No matter what, it's good stuff to begin a day and get you thinking.

Scribbling
Scribbling, a synonym for Writing so the "SAVERS" acronym works. Get to some writing. Sometimes you don't even know what ideas of yours are lurking beneath the surface because you need to take time to write, and in doing so, things come out unexpectedly that really illuminate where you are in life.

So that's it!

Like I mentioned earlier, I've been practicing this for about six weeks. I wake up at 5:00 and get to this first thing. My routine is as follows:

1. Write five things I'm thankful for (Affirmations)
2. Write the 10 dreams I made happen (Visualizing)
3. Read a bit
4. Write a bit
5. Exercise flow
6. Meditate

If I have to wash my hair, I usually do the exercise part first, hop in the shower, and then let my hair air dry a bit while I work though the rest.

If I'm running late, I do the meditation in the evening.

Sometimes I miss a day, or sometimes I miss the meditation.

I can tell you that my days are way better when I have this practice happening. I am in a happier mood, I see all the good in things, I am much more calm and collected in my moments of anxiety throughout my day. I've learned to slow down in those stressful moments - significantly. This practice will really make a difference for you if you can get up and get though the early-morning grind.

I have a little something for you! The little cheat-cheat picture at left is available here for you to download and print in case you'd like to have a reference point to get started.

Do you already practice Miracle Morning? The person who taught me is Faith, you should totally follow her if you're on Instagram! Thank you, Faith, for the inspiration and great habits you bring into my life!

And, connect with me on Instagram, too, if you're not already! I'd love to have you tag me in some awesome routines like this that set up some awesome self care! Or, leave a comment and let's hear what you're up to!

What I'm Loving

♥ quiet Friday night at home. No where to be, just quiet time unwinding by writing and watching the Bachelor.

♥ warm fuzzies on Valentine's Day and overhearing friends tell one another, "You're smart, you're beautiful, I'm so glad we're friends."

Speaking of friends, ♥ friends who are your soulmates. Like, you can never be too sure about guys, but you know without a doubt that the bffs will *always be there for you.

that being said, ♥ a specific look on guys that stops me dead in my tracks: Some sports apparel, puffer vest for winter, and a backwards hat. I see you, please stop looking so hot!

♥ my ASU blender bottle...best secret santa gift EVER! Fizzies AND school spirit? Yes!

♥ instagram stories. You want to know what I'm doing throughout my day? Check those out!

♥ friends who tell it like it is, and ♥ myself for knowing my preferences. Going out on Friday night? nah, I'm good.

♥ Zella leggings. And I need a new pair, so may the online shopping commence.

Happy Friday friends!

Welcome home!

I have missed blogging.

I wrote a post about Brené Brown's Daring Greatly (a book that has TRANSFORMED my life) over winter break and as I wrote, I thought to myself, "Wow, I love writing. I miss blogging. I need to do this more!"

For a LONG time I was doing most of my writing on my other blog, BigTime Literacy. I'm a teacher and an Literacy Coach, and so I have lots to say about that. But lately, I've found I've been super interested in nutrition and health and wellness, and really, I'd like to reinvigorate my little lifestyle blog over here.

So... I plan on posting more over here. March 1st starts the Slice of Life Story Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers, and I'll be connecting this blog with them for the first time (although it will by my sixth year participating in the month-long writing challenge!) It's always good to connect with others who have similar interests (writing and teaching to name a few) so I'm excited to see what will become of Hello Good Good Life over the next month and a half!

I originally began blogging here on HelloGGL back in March of 2012 as I took on my first Whole 30 for a month. Since then, I've learned so much about nutrition as I participated in and coached others through Arbonne's 30 Days to Healthy Living. But really, it's cool to come back to my initial purposes for writing, which had to do with living a healthy lifestyle.

And so I return home, where Hello Good Good Life was built on the idea of creating a great life, and was inspired by the song Good Life by One Republic. Our time here on Earth is so short, we should be living not just a good, good life, but THE BEST life. And so together, here with you, I hope to find things that can get at that.

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to connect with me on Instagram and Twitter. And if you're all about that teaching life, there's years worth of posts over at BigTime Literacy.

Anyone want to write with me for a whole month? LMK and I can help set you up on a blog easy peasy!

Until next time, sending wellness wishes :-)