Category Archives: Self Improvement

The Sweetness of Doing Nothing!

Good afternoon!

I am doing much better today!! I am still taking it easy and taking care of myself, but the worst is over! Thank goodness!! 😉

Anyway, I am taking some time this lovely Saturday afternoon to watch the movie Eat, Pray, Love, and I know I have spoken about this movie before, but I am trying to look at it with new eyes. I still think the movie is by no means as good as the book – hardly any movie ever is, but the movie is still a feast for the eyes!!! I have never wanted to go to Bali before, but now I may have to add this to my Life list. I love the spirituality of the author’s story. The complete breakdown and break apart of this woman’s life to discover who she truly is and what she truly wants. You do not know how many times I have dreamed about doing this with my life, but the idea of living without Jason in my life is so foreign and something I don’t EVER want to experience. HOWEVER, I could totally get on board with cashing in all of my assets, quitting my job and taking time to roam the world. Jason would be a GREAT traveling partner!! We would journey through Ireland, tour England, eat our way through Italy, make the rounds in France, marvel at Russia’s architecture, hula our way through Hawaii, and then take some time to explore our own continent.

At one point in the movie, Liz, our main character says, “I want to go some place where I can marvel at the world.” I want this too. I want to be in awe of this great place God has blessed us with. Sometime I watch travel shows, and am AMAZED that these GREAT places are actually on the SAME PLANET that I am on!! I HAVE GOT TO GET OUT THERE!!!

Liz says, “I remember an old catholic joke about a man who spent his whole life going to a church every day and prayed to the statue of a great saint begging “please, please, please, let me win the lottery.” Finally the exasperated statue comes to life and looks down at the begging man and says “my son, please, please, please, buy a ticket.” So now I get the joke, and I bought three tickets.”

Another part of the movie that really hit home for me:

Luca Spaghetti: “Americans. You work too hard, you get burned out. You come home and spend the whole weekend in your pajamas in front of the T.V.”
Liz: “That’s not far off, actually.”
Luca Spaghetti: “But you don’t know pleasure. You have to be told you’ve earned it. You see a commercial that says: ‘It’s Miller Time!’ And you say, That’s right, now I’m going to buy a six pack. And then drink the whole thing and wake up the next morning and you feel terrible. But an Italian doesn’t need to be told. He walks by a sign that says: You deserve a break today. And he says, Yes, I know. That’s why I’m planning on taking a break at noon to go over to your house and sleep…with your wife!”
Giovanni: “We call it “dolce far niente”, the sweetness of doing nothing.”

At one point in the movie they talk about what is your word. What is one word that describes you wrapped up all in one word??? This is not the same word that you would use to describe what you do for a living. I am not sure how I would answer that! Right now that might be….hmmm…dreamer. I would LOVE it if that word was TRAVELING DREAMER! Ok, I realize that is more than one word! but I’m just sayin’!!! 😉 Maybe I had better do a little more soul-searching to try and decide what word would describe me!!

As I spend some more time just enjoying this movie, and not psychoanalyzing it and me to death I hope that you all have….

A FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Sick As A Dog!

Good morning!

Ok, so I am realizing no matter how much you try to take care of yourself, when your body decides to get sick you have no choice but to pay attention!!! So, today I am down and out with a REALLY bad bug!!

This mornings’ post may be really short, but I wanted to make sure that I posted my Kaizen actions from yesterday:

  • Drank a glass of water as soon as I got out of bed
  • Brushed teeth – hey this counts
  • Wore walking shoes to work
  • Did Kegals during breakfast – it was a tiny action and I want to be fit EVERYWHERE!
  • Took a few minutes to stretch before I left for work
  • Ate a healthy breakfast
  • Had a multivitamin with breakfast
  • Walked two blocks from parking lot to office, swiftly
  • Walked up two flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator
  • Tracked breakfast
  • Picked up medication from pharmacy
  • Walked four blocks from pharmacy and back
  • Had a light, vegetable-based lunch
  • Walked 2 more blocks from office to parking lot
  • Took my sick self home from work at noon
  • Took medication
  • Put myself to bed
  • Slept most of the night
  • Drank a total of 6 glasses of water

Before I leave for the morning, I have to give a shout out to my sweetie! I really love that man o’ mine, and I would not have made it through the night without him! He knows what I am talking about!! 😉 I love you, Baby!!

Have a FABULOUS day!!

The Chunky Dunker’s Club, Week 4

Good evening!

Welcome to week 4, of the Chunky Dunker’s Club!!! Can you believe it has been FOUR weeks already??

Every week I post a new Chunky Dunker’s article ever Wednesday evening, and you have the opportunity to comment, and cheer each other as you each go through your journey to get fit and healthy!!! We will discuss hints, tips, and ideas on losing weight, staying motivated, and achieving your fitness goals, whether that is to lose 5 pounds, to do 10 sit-ups, or just incorporate some healthy habits into your daily life!!

Tonight’s topic: Keizen or Constant and Never Ending Improvement!!

At work today, I had an 8 hour class on the Japanese concept of Kaizen (pronouned Ky-zen), which literally means “Good Change”. The basic concept of Kaizen is the idea of making minute changes to your processes to create a different outcome than where you may already be heading. Otherwise, constant and never ending improvement through baby steps!! I LOVE THAT!! I thought that this would be PERFECT to apply to our goal of getting fit and healthy.

I had studied Kaizen as it relates to fitness in the past, and one of the things I had read was, if you are having troubles exercising, do one thing – one small thing, just to get the ball of momentum rolling. This doesn’t have to be a big action, I would actually encourage you to do one VERY TINY action. For me, it is simply the act of putting my tennis shoes on, as if I am going to go for a walk. That’s it! Not the walk, just putting on the shoes for the walk. If today was successful, for tomorrow, I might make it my Kaizen goal to put on my tennis shoes, and then add a 5 minute walk. Nothing too big, or scary!!! I can commit to TINY ACTION!! If today doesn’t work, try something else, but just keep trying ANYTHING!

For some of you I know that you might be thinking that exercise is not an option, so maybe your TINY ACTION might be to raise your arms above your head 1 time! Can you do it twice tomorrow? How about 3 times? If you find that it 3 times is too much, then go back to 1 time, until eventually you ARE able to do it 3 times, 5 times, 10 times, etc!!

You can apply Kaizen to your eating habits too! Maybe today you decide you will have diet soda instead of regular, or maybe you will get really brave and have none! Maybe you can eat one more serving of vegetables than you did yesterday, or maybe substitute one unhealthy ingredient out for one healthy one instead. Do you see what I mean!?!?! We can all DO THAT!! 😉

The idea behind this is that if you do enough TINY HEALTHY ACTIONS every day/week/month you will EASILY be on your way to your most AUTHENTICALLY healthy and fit self!! I fully believe that! I don’t always act on it, but that is what we are all here for – to SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER!!!

This week, my commitment to you, is that I am going to carry a small notebook with me every where I go, and ANY TIME I DO ANYTHING that is good for me, or promotes a healthy and fit lifestyle, I will write it down and share it with you every evening! How does that sound?? I would encourage you all to share any TINY ACTIONS or KAIZEN TASKS that you may be taking any and every day! They will quickly add up, and you will have LOADS of proof that YOU CAN GET FIT AND HEALTHY!!!

I dare you to literally take that FIRST TINY STEP! I would love to hear in the comment section what that TINY step might be!! GO CHUNKY DUNKERS!!!

Before I go, I was hoping to share a health-ified recipe with you this evening. I “borrowed” this off of one of my FAVORITE sites, Eating Well. They have all sorts of GREAT recipe ideas, and I would HIGHLY recommend going out there and checking out their site!!

This recipe is from their article, 10 Spring Diners in 30 Minutes or Less – you know how much Mamma likes getting in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible!!! 😉

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Aquavit Seasonings

The seasonings traditionally used to make aquavit—a Northern European distilled spirit—vary with every recipe, but they usually include pork-friendly seasonings like caraway, cumin and fennel-so why not combine the two? This easy, pretty dish is great hot off the grill or made ahead and chilled.

8 servings

Active Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes (including 30 minutes marinating time)

Ingredients

  • 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
  • 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
  • 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1/2 bay leaf
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
  • 2 1-pound pork tenderloins, trimmed

Preparation

  1. Combine caraway, coriander, fennel, cumin and bay leaf in a spice grinder or clean coffee grinder; process to a fine powder. Add salt and pepper.
  2. Place 2 tablespoons of the spice rub in a small bowl. Combine the remaining rub with dill in another small bowl.
  3. Place 1 tenderloin on a piece of plastic wrap. To butterfly it, hold your knife parallel to the cutting board and slice through the meat to within a half inch of the opposite side. Open like a book. Cover with more plastic wrap and gently pound with a mallet or heavy skillet to 1/2-inch thickness. Repeat with the second tenderloin.
  4. Spread half of the dill-spice mixture down the center of each flattened tenderloin. Roll the pork, jelly-roll style, to create 2 long cylinders; tie kitchen string around each in several spots to keep them rolled. Rub all over with the reserved (no-dill) spice rub. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 6 hours.
  5. Preheat grill to medium-high or preheat the broiler.
  6. Oil the grill rack (see Tip) (if broiling, line a broiler pan with foil and oil the foil). Grill or broil the tenderloins, turning several times, until just cooked through and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 145°F, 14 to 18 minutes.
  7. Transfer the tenderloins to a clean cutting board, tent with foil and let rest for 5 minutes before carving into 1/2-inch slices.

Tips & Notes

  • Make Ahead Tip: Prepare the spice rub (Step 1) up to 5 days ahead; store in an airtight container. Cover and refrigerate rolled tender loins for up to 6 hours. If serving cold, grill or broil the pork, cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. | Equipment: Kitchen string
  • Tip: To oil the grill rack, oil a folded paper towel, hold it with tongs and rub it over the rack. (Do not use cooking spray on a hot grill.) When grilling delicate foods like tofu and fish, it is helpful to spray the food with cooking spray.

Nutrition

Per serving: 130 calories; 3 g fat ( 1 g sat , 1 g mono ); 74 mg cholesterol; 1 g carbohydrates; 0 g added sugars; 24 g protein; 1 g fiber; 207 mg sodium; 475 mg potassium.

Exchanges: 3 1/2 lean meat

WOW! I am sorry for the SUPER long posting tonight! YOU KNOW ME!!! Anyway, I look forward to hearing how all of you are doing this week with your health and fitness goals, your thoughts on Kaizen, and if you might try any TINY action tomorrow! and if anyone has just stumbled onto this blog, please feel to join in on the commenting, this is not a closed group!! – THE MORE THE MERRIER!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Recipe Pic, Week 4

Putting My House on a Diet!

Good evening!!

Before I start my rant this evening, I wanted to give a shout out to my sister, Alexa, in Arizona! I am just SO PROUD OF HER!! She bit the bullet, and has started a blog! I look forward to reading about her hopes, dreams, and desires! I love you, Sissy! You mean the world to me!!! CHECK HER OUT HERE!!! 😉

On to my nightly rant 😉

Tonight is one of those rare evenings when I am home by myself, and I noticed something as I walked through my front door, that for some reason I haven’t noticed lately:

MY HOUSE IS A BIG OL’ PIG-STYE!!!

SERIOUSLY!?!?!?! So not only have I made a HUGE dent on chores since I have gotten home from work, but I have decided to put my house on a SERIOUS DIET!!! I already have a box packed and ready to go to Goodwill! I think I will take that over there before I get my dinner ready!!

Where does this need to pack as much CRAP into your life as humanly possible come from?? Is this the American dream? Is this what I work so long and hard at a job that literally drains me of all energy and motivation to do anything??? OH HELL NO!!! I am not sure how my husband is going to feel about it, but SOMEONE has got to stop the insanity and HONEY, THAT SOMEONE LOOKS LIKE IT IS GOING TO BE ME!!!

The first thing I am going to do is turn on my happy music, and gather 3 bins/bags/receptacles:

  1. Stuff to  put away!
  2. Trash to throw away!
  3. Stuff to give away!

Then I am going to pick one room to go through every other day – that way I don’t overwhelm myself and just decide what to do with each item I come across!! Do I really need 6 years worth of magazines??? Well…NO! I DON’T! I am taking my home back!!

When I think of all the time and money I have invested into all of this STUFF & not even IMPORTANT STUFF, and how much time and money I STILL invest in all of this STUFF, it just makes me green with sickness!! UGH! I am sure I could have gone to Paris 3 times over already!! WHAAA!

Ok, so I am putting my big girl panties on, getting with the program, and taking responsibility for the mess (LITERALLY) that I have gotten myself in, and I my house is now OFFICIALLY on a diet!!

Wish me luck!! I hope my house doesn’t end up going through withdrawals, or going through the DTS, I am not sure I will be able to handle that. But I am mentally prepared to deal with a house that will be, at times very snarky, and I will have to deal with all of it’s cravings for a new tcha0ki, or magazine, or dust ruffle – who knows what kind of tail spin a diet of this magnitude could do to my house!!! LOL! I will keep you posted!! 😉

As I get my booty busy cleaning house…

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Note to Chunky Dunkers: How is everything going, did you think I had forgotten about you?? NO WAY! I am still in the thick (and thin) of trying to take care of my body, and get fit and healthy!! Hang in there, if you fall of the wagon, just get yourself up, and hop back on. One step at a time, one minute at a time, one bite at a time! WE CAN DO THIS!!!