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Self-Love Journal 11/7/15
Last night was date night and it was so nice. It has been a long time since Gary and I have been able to enjoy a night just the two of us. However, we did stop and see Heather at her work for a drink at the beginning of our date. I hadn’t been able to see her most of the week and I wanted to be able to connect with her and catch up on what is new in her life. Her boyfriend, Marcus, has decided to go back to truck driving and will be driving as an owner/operator. She is putting on a brave front but I know that this will be difficult for her. Although it will hopefully help them financially this means that she is truly a single mother, going to school full time and working full time.
I hope that going through this process of learning to accept and love myself that I can pass this on to the young adults in my life. They are so busy already and have so many pressures on themselves. I just hope that through my journey I can teach them to make time to take care of themselves before stress begins to affect them negatively.
After we saw Heather, we went to a restaurant called Taps and then to the Tokyo Grill. I love it when we hop from one place to the next. I had never done this before I met Gary but it makes going out very enjoyable and we get to try different types of cuisine in one night. At Taps we had spicy shrimp and then at the Tokyo Grill we had dumplings, sushi and general’s chicken. Then we came home and watched a movie. It was the perfect date night and it was nice to catch up and just hang out together.
This morning we are going to head to the beach for a walk. I am looking forward to the sand between my toes and listening to the waves hit the shore. It is nearly 80 degrees already and it will be an unexpected treat. Winter is almost here, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. We might even still be wearing shorts on Thanksgiving.
I have a lot of work I want to get done this weekend, but I also need to get my toes done, my bangs trimmed and a lot of grocery shopping completed. I leave for Manhattan Friday morning and won’t be back until Sunday afternoon and then Joshua; my boss will be riding with me. I need to make sure that this week goes smoothly and that I am prepared for next week as well.
Later—————————–
We went to the beach and it was perfect. We did the walk we used to do when we lived there and we were amazed at how many people were there in November. It was hot though and I know that if we still lived at the beach, we would have done the walk in our bathing suits. The water felt cooler at first but it was really quite warm and we were glad it kept us a little cooler in the heat.
After the beach, we did a little shopping for my upcoming trip to New York next week and then we went grocery shopping.
Brooke asked us to do the 14 day Paleo Cleanse Plus this month so Gary, Brooke and I will start it tomorrow and be done well before Thanksgiving. This will be the first time she has done this with us and it will be interesting. It will also be challenging for me this time because I have been drinking way too much coffee lately and traveling while doing a detox is never easy. The good news is that the packets will make it simpler to travel with and I can pack snacks. I will just have to be careful with 2 meals while I am there.
Self-Love Journal 11/8/15
It is Sunday morning and there is a lot going on today. I am hoping that we will get the new screen installed and also get pedicures.
Plus I want to make some changes to my calendar and get several emails out to all of my customers and potential customers about some promotions that I have for them in November. I also have three PowerPoints to review and make changes to. If I get all of this done, I will be very happy.
We start our cleanse today. It will be good, it is a complete phase 1 and phase 2 liver cleanse and will help all of us feel better. We will sleep better, have more energy and have increased mental clarity through the cleanse. Although the first few days might not be as fun depending on how many toxins we have built up. Gary will probably be fine, I may have a bit of a caffeine withdrawal and I suspect Brooke might have a sugar withdrawal. We will all get through it though and it will be a good way to help us eat cleaner through the holidays.
This is just another way of taking care of ourselves and I am glad that we are doing it. I was tired last night and was in bed by 10 o’clock. My Fitbit shows that I got almost 9 hours of sleep, which is amazing. When I was looking at my Fitbit statistics, I noticed that I have walked over 70,000 steps each week for the last 5 weeks. This is really good and I have also averaged over 210 minutes of activity each week for the last 4 weeks.
I definitely feel better doing more activity. Not only is it good for toning, weight control, etc. Most importantly I notice it in the way I feel mentally. I feel happier doing it, I am in a better mood and I know that it is helping me manage stress especially on overly busy days and days that I feel overwhelmed.
Self-Love Journal 11/9/15
I am doing my journal tonight instead of this morning. I wanted to get out of the house quickly and stop at all of my doctor’s offices so that I could get back and take care of some follow-up and emails.
I had a beautiful email today from Steve and Laura showing their support for me and this project. I don’t think they would mind that I include it here.
Just a thought on your project for the week; I know that all of the people you have met whether personal, business or whatever, think you are a beautiful, intelligent, loving and a passionate person, it is what both of us see and I hope and pray you see that person every morning!
I wanted to include this as a reminder to myself to see this person in the mirror more often. Thank you, Steve and Laura, for your encouragement.
Today was the second day of our cleanse and I am amazed at how much energy and mental clarity I already have. We usually eat really well but not perfectly. For me, the greatest change is no caffeine and no dairy. Although, I have definitely limited dairy in my life, I still have cheese more often than I probably should. There is also no wine and, of course, no beer over the next two weeks. Since, my only beverage is water or decaffeinated green tea – I am drinking a lot more water which probably is making me feel really good also.
I know Brooke is finding this really challenging and is not feeling nearly as good. Her diet has a lot more sugar, gluten, and dairy in it than ours does. Plus she has a good amount of caffeine. It is so hard for teenagers because everything is marketed to them and if it is convenient and comes in a bag than they want to have it. I am proud of her though because she is sticking to it and asking a lot of questions about what she can and can’t have. I hope that tomorrow is a better day for her.
We tried a new yoga DVD tonight. It was called core yoga and my core definitely is feeling it. I am not sure if it is really what we are looking for still. I miss my Salt Room Yoga Classes with Maryann and Mark. I think Gary found a few things for us on YouTube to try before we make any more yoga DVD purchases.
Tomorrow night we will have little man and we will probably go for a walk. I can’t believe I am saying this, but I am actually looking forward to a run. Who knows maybe I will surprise Gary sometime soon and actually suggest running outside. It has been a long time since I have suggested this. I like to run on the treadmill better, but we can put little man in the stroller and take him for a run/walk. I am sure he will enjoy it also.
Heather says he is getting closer to crawling. I can’t wait to see him. I hope that he is feeling better and that we have a good night.
Tomorrow, I will do the webinar for the next part of my body confidence and weight loss course.
Self-Love Journal 11/10/15
I didn’t get a chance to journal this morning and it is time for bed. I am typing this as I hold little man; he has fallen asleep on my chest and I am thankful that I can journal on my phone.
We had a great dinner. Gary made us chicken chorizo with gluten brown rice free pasta. Everybody loved it and we made a “to go” container for Heather.
I listened to week 5 today and they talked a lot about self-care, finding more joy and doing things for pleasure in our lives. I will write about this more tomorrow. Since part of me taking care of myself is making I get enough sleep and it is time I do that now.
Self-Love Journal 11/11/15
Jessica talked a lot about pleasure and self-care this week during her tapping webinar. I understand the power of self-care. I might not always practice it, but I understand why it is necessary for us to do. However, I have never really thought about pleasure before.
She shared a quote by Marc David, “Pleasure is a powerful metabolizer that increases oxygenation and blood flow and decreases the production of cortisol and insulin, ultimately helping to burn fat and build muscle”. When I heard this, I was kind of skeptical. But then this morning I am thinking that if stress is known to do affect our health by increasing cortisol, causing insulin resistance and making us retain more fat then then why is it so difficult to believe that pleasure could create just the opposite for the body?
I did some quick research online and I was not able to find any research articles quickly. However, what I did find was interesting. I found a lot of articles and research written about the food companies and how their goal is to have us get more pleasure out of the food we eat. Well actually, how to get us to eat more processed foods by associating pleasure with them. They have actually done a very good job of this and their success can be seen in how many overweight and sick people we have in this world.
My point about writing about pleasure though is that this is not something I have ever consciously thought about focusing on. I have been doing this journal for about 2 months now and I have never thought about what activities bring me pleasure. I say consciously because when I am doing something I enjoy, I often will take a second to reflect and think that I am thankful that I get to enjoy or do this particular thing. For instance, I reset my alarm for 20 minutes later this morning and when I woke up, I made a mental note of how happy I was to be able to spend 20 extra minutes in my warm and comfortable bed.
Before I began writing this morning, I made myself a cup of decaffeinated green tea and as I have been sitting here sipping on it, I have been thinking about how grateful I am to drink something other than water.
Today, I will think about what brings me pleasure and joy and how I can have more of that in my life and how I can be conscious of it when I do.
Self-Love Journal 11/12/15
I woke up super early this morning, before Gary’s alarm even went off at 4:55 am and couldn’t fall back to sleep. Hopefully, this will just allow me to go to bed early tonight since I have to be up around 3:30 to get to the airport for a 6 am flight.
Yesterday was a good day. I was talking with Sharon and Jean on our weekly conference call for World Wellness when Sharon mentioned that she wanted to start writing down at least one thing daily that she did for herself and put it in a jar. Jean emailed us later and suggested that we email each other the nice thing that we do for ourselves each day. It is amazing the way the universe works. This is the topic that I am working on this week, but I hadn’t mentioned it to either Jean or Sharon. I could view Sharon’s comment as a coincidence. But I believe that my angels feel that I need a little help on this topic. As I write that sentence, I am getting a huge confirmation that this is the truth. I must need more work in this area than I first realized.
My nice thing that I did for myself yesterday was to get my car washed and then to drive home with my sunroof open enjoying the beautiful warm sunny day while imagining the things that bring me pleasure.
Jessica Ortner describes imagining a joy bubble expanding from the heart center. Thinking about everything that brings joy into my life and filling up the bubble with it causing the bubble to get larger and larger.
She referenced a beautiful quote by Yogananda “When a little bubble of joy appears in your sea of consciousness, take hold of it and keep expanding it. Meditate on it and it will grow larger. Keep puffing at the bubble until it breaks its confining walls and becomes a sea of joy.”
As I sit here, I am thinking about all of the things that bring me joy and there are many.
Yesterday, I did some work before I left the house and I got to see Heather, MJ, and Brooke for a while. This brought me a lot of joy. It was a nice moment with the girls and it was fun playing with little man as we tried to encourage him to crawl. It didn’t work, but we showed him that he could roll across the floor to get to his toys just as easily.
My job also brings me joy. I love going into offices and talking with the staff and the doctors about how they use supplements in their practice.
Spending my evenings with Gary and our family brings me joy. I love connecting at the end of our day, talking, cooking, exercising, and relaxing.
I will work on a list soon of other things that bring me joy as well.
Self-Love Journal 11/13/15
It is 5:30 am and I am sitting at the Jacksonville Airport getting ready to get on a plane and head to New York. I am so excited to be able to see all of my Designs for Health friends and also to listen to 10 amazing doctors speak about wellness.
This is the lineup. 
I realized this morning on my drive to the airport that I have a lot more to discover when it comes to self-care, pleasure and what brings me joy. I feel that I need to spend at least another week on this.
This is a great topic for me this month because I am putting in so much extra effort at work. Due to this it leaves even less time for me and the things I need/want to do to take care of myself. I have to learn how to take care of myself better ALL of the time and not just some of the time.
I think part of this whole process is recognizing the things I do for myself without thinking. Finding gratitude for the small things, especially when I am busy, makes my days more pleasurable.
For instance, I could look at today and think that there is no time to take care of myself. I started at 3:30 am and as soon as I get to New York the day is packed. I have to be at the hotel where the event is at 1:00 pm and we have speakers lined up all afternoon and a cocktail reception this evening. Plus in between things we have to figure out how to get the key to our Airbnb and get our luggage there. Before I even get to New York the whole morning will be filled with traveling and scrambling to get this journal edited and posted today and not on Monday.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I am sending Jean and Sharon an email each day sharing something nice that I have done for myself that day. Jean has already sent hers saying that she is going to Flagler Beach for the weekend to enjoy the sand, ocean and sunshine.
When I got her email, I immediately felt anxiety. What am I going to do that is good for me? How can I take care of myself and find pleasure in a day that is so busy?
After thinking about it for a little while, I realized that I have already done quite a few things. I used my favorite lotions and body oils this morning before getting dressed. I have done my tapping meditation and I am taking the time to journal. This afternoon, I plan to enjoy thoroughly walking around New York when we go from the hotel to our Airbnb. I love that city! I get to listen to 10 amazing speakers this afternoon and tonight I get to mingle and connect with not only the doctors who have come to lecture but also incredible doctors from all over the country and my Designs for Health colleagues.
I didn’t have to attend this event. It was not required by my job. I chose to because I really wanted to go and I have paid for it out of my own pocket. It is good to remember this because although I will be working, it will also be a ton of fun and I am sure I will learn a lot!
Something else that I get to do for myself is re-read this week’s journals as I edit them to post on the website. I have never really taken the time before to reflect on my journals. Posting them makes me take the time to do so and it allows me the opportunity to gain an even deeper understanding of what I want to do to enjoy my life more and to accept myself as I am.
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Self-Love Takeaways Week 8
- We need to recognize the little things that we do to take care of ourselves. When we do not acknowledge the things that we do in our daily lives to take care of herself, then it doesn’t relieve the stress or allow us to enjoy these things the way we could with just a simple acknowledgement of “Hey I am taking care of myself. I deserve it. This is something I do for me!”
To see other Self-Love Takeaways click here.